Friendship, Love and Life
by IamAnubis
Summary: Fred, George,Lee, Katie, Angelina and Alicia are just starting Hogwarts. Watch as they make their way through the years of their life ahead of them at Hogwarts trying all the time to cling to their friendship and their love.
1. The Journey Begins

Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling or almost anything at all. Except of course my PC, but you cant sue me for that……can you?

A/N: I know that Miss Rowling has now made it abundantly clear to all that Katie is not in the same year as Alicia, Angelina and the rest. But I'm going to pretend that she is simply because it works better for me. That's how it should be, curse you and your Katie-splitting-up J.K!

**Chapter One – The Journey Begins**

"You go first Percy. Go on dear, Fred and George are bound to be nervous since its their first year."

Mrs. Weasley's spoke quite quietly as she made her way through Kings Cross Station. It seemed she didn't want her voice to carry so that the people moving all around the group of redheads wouldn't hear.

"MUM!"

"We are NOT nervous!"

Two indignant voices rang out from behind her as two young redheaded twins protested at her words. Mrs Weasley paid no attention to them however, simply bringing the group to a halt and ushering the eldest of the children forwards.

"Go on Percy, we don't have all day."

Percy didn't say a word, he simply nodded and manoeuvred his trolley so that it was facing the barrier which the group had stopped in front of. He remained still for a moment before starting forwards, picking up speed until he was running full tilt at the solid barrier. He was going to hit it, was it some sort of joke? Why would any woman be telling her son to run headlong into a barrier?

But he didn't hit the barrier. He passed right through it, vanishing from view on the side that Mrs Weasley and the twins remained on. Mrs Weasley did not look the least bit surprised, her expression made it clear she thought it was perfectly normal to have sons of hers disappear through solid walls. She turned quickly to the two twins hovering behind her, but she was interrupted before she could speak. A loud gasp came from behind the twins and she looked up to see a brown haired girl stood riveted to the spot with her mouth wide open in shock stood next to a man, obviously her father, who was pushing a large trolley. Mrs Weasley looked the girl and her father up and down quickly, taking in their distinctly normal appearance. Well, normal compared to the clothing she and the twins were wearing. She beckoned to them, but when they did not move she pushed past the twins and hurried over to them, not giving a second glance to the strange looking packages upon the trolley the man was pushing.

"Hello dear." She said hastily, smiling down at the girl who still had her mouth open in shock.

She then turned to the man.

"You're looking for Platform Nine and Three Quarters?"

The man looked nervous, but he nodded quickly. His eyes flitting back to the barrier.

"I….Is that how…."

"Yes dear." Replied Mrs Weasley.

"You must be Muggles. I'm Molly Weasley, and these are my sons…."

But she was interrupted by the two twins darting out from behind her back and smiling innocently at the 'muggles'

"I'm Gred and he's…"

"Forge."

The twins chorused, with perfect timing. Molly swatted the head of the nearest one with her hand.

"How many times have I told you two to stop using those ridiculous names?" She smiled apologetically at the man.

"These are my sons Fred and George. And the one you just saw run through the barrier is Percy."

The man nodded, he seemed to be pulling himself together and getting over the initial shock of what he had just seen. However he didn't seem to be troubled by the woman calling him a muggle, it seemed he had heard that phrase since being informed his beloved daughter was a witch.

"I'm Jonathon, Jonathon Spinnet, and this is my daughter Alicia."

He indicated the girl stood next to him, but she didn't speak. She seemed rather wary of the two innocent looking twins. Jonathon Spinnet smiled.

"I'm sorry, Alicia's just a bit nervous at the moment."

Mrs Weasley chuckled quietly.

"That's not surprising dear, it can be a bit overwhelming at first. I noticed you staring, I expect you want to know how to get onto the platform?"

Mr Spinnet nodded gratefully.

"If you could tell us we'd be ever so grateful, I was dreading having to ask a guard when I saw your son disappear into the barrier."

Mrs Weasley kept smiling and moved back to where she had originally been stood with the twins and Percy, beckoning again for Mr Spinnet to follow. Both he and Alicia followed her, listening as she explained in a low voice to them.

"Its not really that difficult. All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier in front of us. You mustn't stop or be afraid that you'll crash into it, remember that."

Jonathon smiled gratefully, and even Alicia managed a small smile. However their smiles did not conceal their doubts. It seemed impossible to them that they would pass through a solid barrier. Then again, they had already seen that other boy….Percy accomplish it. If he could do it then how could it be impossible?

The twins interrupted before either could say anymore. They were speaking to Alicia who still looked quite wary of them.

"You should say goodbye to your dad. You wont see him again for months now."

"Yeah, but when you get back you'll be able to hex him if he tries to punish you, or just for fun."

"GEORGE!" chided Mrs Weasley whilst Alicia giggled.

Mr Spinnet however, did not laugh. He looked extremely uncomfortable truth be told. He didn't say anything however, he simply watched Mrs Weasley reprimanding her two sons who were claiming they'd never dream of doing such a thing to her and their father. Alicia was looking a bit happier, and bursting into giggles every now and again as she heard the twins' attempts to wriggle out of the situation. Finally Mrs Weasley turned away from Fred and George with one last glare and glanced at her watch.

"Only ten minutes to go. We should be getting onto the platform, would you like us to see Alicia safely onto the train Mr Spinnet?"

Jonathon Spinnet frowned.

"Sorry?"

A flicker of pity crossed Mrs Weasley's face as she replied.

"Didn't you know dear? I'm afraid muggles can't get onto the platform. Only little Alicia here will be able to get through."

Alicia looked a little worried for a moment, but burst into another fit of giggles as one of the twins muttered.

"Don't we wish you were a muggle then."

"FRED!" Mrs Weasley snapped at him.

"Behave yourselves or else you won't be going to Hogwarts at all!"

This seemed to silence George, though it took a moment for Alicia's giggles to subside. She was starting to like these two boys, she wondered if she could make friends with them when they got to school. However this thought left her mind when her father spoke again.

"Oh, well in that case I'd be extremely grateful if you'd take Alicia to the train."

Mrs Weasley turned from glaring daggers at the twin called Fred to reply to Mr Spinnet.

"No problem at all. We're glad to help."

Jonathon knelt down to face his daughter and spoke softly to her.

"I guess this is where we part then. Be good, and write to your mother and me as soon as you get a chance."

Alicia nodded quickly. She hugged her father tightly before he straightened up. These people seemed nice enough; she didn't feel as nervous since the twins had made her laugh. It seemed the laughter had eased her tension; mentally she thanked the twins for this.

"I'll stay until you're through the barrier." He told her.

She nodded and turned to Mrs Weasley, turning her trolley with difficulty. Up until now her father had been pushing it and she hadn't realised how heavy it was. After a moment the twins appeared at her sides.

"We'll help."

"Mum's got our things."

She smiled at them as together the three of them began to push the trolley forwards until it was moving relatively quickly. She found that now it came to it she wasn't really doubting that she'd pass through the barrier, she sort of just….knew that she wouldn't hit it. However she did notice the trolley was starting to veer to the right and made an effort to tug it back in course.

"No." said the twin to her right.

Was it Fred or George? She couldn't remember and supposed it didn't really matter.

"But what if we hit someone standing to the side of the barrier when we go through?"

The twin merely grinned at her. She didn't have time to ask any more questions as at that moment they hit the wall and a darkness fell around them as they passed through the solid brickwork. After a second they exited the darkness but before Alicia knew what was happening she heard a cry of pain. Swiftly they pulled the trolley to a halt and all three of them turned round. The third redheaded boy was stood just behind them almost hopping up and down in pain. She glanced at the twins, they were grinning broadly. They had obviously planned this knowing that Percy would be waiting for the rest of the family on the other side of the barrier.

"Sorry Perce." Called one.

"Lost control of the trolley." Called the other.

She grinned back at them, holding back another giggle. She joined in, speaking confidently, all fears forgotten for the moment.

"We didn't notice it veering off."

It was obvious Percy didn't believe them. He glared at the group of them before moving away from them round a corner grimacing in pain. The moment he was gone the three of them burst into laughter.

"I'm glad you stopped me." Spluttered Alicia.

"Couldn't have done it without you, could we Fred?" answered one of the twins, his laughter beginning to wane.

"Nope, mum won't let us near our trolley."

Alicia was the last to stop laughing, only doing so as Mrs Weasley emerged from the barrier behind them with the last trolley and shooed them towards the train.

The twins helped her get her luggage onto the train on Mrs Weasley's orders. She was relieved to see them loading their own luggage into the same compartment, she assumed they didn't know anyone else either. She wouldn't have liked to be left alone, besides she was just starting to make friends with these twins.

She walked back with the twins to Mrs Weasley who gave them both a long hug that they looked quite disgusted to receive and gave Alicia a smaller hug.

"Have a good term." She said to Alicia kindly.

"Thanks." Alicia replied.

"And you two behave. I don't want to hear anything about you two dropping dungombs in classes or breaking any rules!"

Fred and George put on faces of mock shock, Alicia fought once more to hold back her giggles as she watched them, with fingers crossed behind their backs, respond to their mother.

"Mum! Would we do such a thing?"

"When have we ever done anything of the sort?"

"Last night George Weasley! Now get on that train, its about to leave!"

Sure enough, a moment later a long shrill whistle was blown and the engine of the train fired up. The twins and Alicia climbed back on board and into their compartment. By the time they were seated the train had rounded the bend and they could no longer see Mrs Weasley. They were on their way to Hogwarts.

* * *

A/N: Whew, first chapter done. Next chapter I'll be bringing in Angelina, Katie, and Lee. Just felt like setting up a budding friendship between a few characters first and the twins and Alicia were the first that popped into my head.

Please review people. Leave a comment, be it positive or negative. Let me know what you think!


	2. Trains, Hats and New Friends

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, he owns me. My life of slavery begins here. Anyway, please don't sue me. I'll give the characters back, honest. Maybe not in mint condition though…

**Chapter Two – Trains, Hats and New Friends**

The group of three would be friends started off the journey by debating the prank they had pulled on Percy. Whilst Alicia thought it was hilarious Fred and George claimed they'd done much better in the past. Alicia found herself wondering how far these two would go for a prank as Fred and George relived some of their 'top ten', as they called them. She wasn't really worried though; all the pranks were in good humour. Not intended to cause lasting harm. Well, most of the time.

They had barely been discussing Fred and George's pranking accomplishments for ten minutes when their compartment door slid open. A blonde girl stood there with her trunk on the floor behind her. She looked incredibly nervous and sounded it too when she spoke.

"Erm…do you mind if I sit in here? Most of the other carriages are full."

Alicia smiled at the girl and nodded, Fred and George had returned to their own conversation by this time. The girl heaved a sigh of relief and began to drag her trunk into the compartment. Alicia rose from her seat and helped the girl, in a few moments they had the trunk tucked safely away with the others and she and the girl sat down.

"Are you new at Hogwarts too?" asked the girl.

Alicia nodded.

"My name's Alicia Spinnet. Its my first year."

"I'm Katie, Katie Bell."

Fred and George looked up from their conversation.

"Don't bother to ask us our names then, we'll just pretend we're not here shall we?"

Alicia frowned at them.

"You were talking to each other, I didn't think you were listening."

"So she says." Said George in a voice that all too easily gave away the fact that he was pretending to feel hurt.

"We thought she liked us and now she ignores us. Guess we shouldn't have got our hopes up."

Alicia kicked one of them softly in the shin, smiling broadly.

"Stop it you two. That might work with your mother but it won't work with me."

"Hey, I'm emotionally traumatised here! We put our limbs on the line to make friends and we're ignored! How do you feel Fred?"

"I feel hurt and abused George."

Katie laughed quietly at the three of them; this seemed to draw Alicia out from the conversation.

"Katie this is Fred and George Weasley. We met at Kings Cross."

She turned back to the twins.

"Happy now?"

"No. We're old enough to introduce ourselves you know." Answered Fred.

"Yeah, we're not five years old."

"You certainly act like it." Retorted Alicia and the group collapsed into giggles.

After they had all stopped laughing they began to discuss Hogwarts. Whilst Fred, George and to some extent Katie knew of the great castle and what went on within it Alicia did not. She was a muggleborn and as such was as much in the dark talking about Hogwarts as the others would have been if she'd brought up Cricket.

As the time passed she learned more about the school and about the four houses (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin), it was only after about an hour when they were interrupted by the compartment door sliding open once more. This time it was not another student however; it was a plump old witch with a food trolley.

"Anything off the trolley?" she asked them.

Fred and George refused, mumbling about sandwiches and turning slightly red. Both Katie and Alicia stood up however, moving over to the food trolley. Alicia only had a limited amount of wizard money that her father had had exchanged for her when they were at Diagon Alley so she chose carefully, with Katie's help of course. Eventually she picked several Cauldron Cakes, Chocolate Frogs, and a bag of Fizzing Whizzbees. She was in the process of paying for these items when a black girl came running down the corridor of the train dressed in a pair of robes. She came to a halt as she reached the cart.

"Thank god." She gasped.

"I thought the trolley would have been and gone by now. I've been asleep and Lee forgot to wake me."

The plump witch smiled at the girl.

"Don't worry, if ever anyone's hungry after I've finished you can always find me at the front of the train."

The girl's smile faded.

"I bet Lee knew that. He let me run all this way for nothing. Wait till I get my hands on him."

Having been startled by the girl's arrival Alicia still had the money she owed in her hand. She now gave it to the woman then turned to the girl and looked at her curiously.

"Are you new here?"

The girl grinned.

"Yeah, my first year. Been really looking forward to it. I'm in a compartment down there with a friend of mine, Lee Jordan. Though sometimes I have no idea WHY I'm his friend. Boys eh?"

"Oy!"

The indignant voice of one of the twins carried out of the compartment.

"We heard that! I wish girls would be more considerate. First they try to ignore us and now they bad-mouth us while they think we aren't listening."

Alicia and Katie burst into a fresh set of giggles, the girl smiled, but didn't laugh. She wasn't in on the joke from earlier in the day.

"I'm Katie Bell." Said Katie.

"And I'm Alicia Spinnet. Do you and Lee have a compartment to yourselves?"

"Angelina Johnson." The girl replied as she began picking up odd packets of sweets from the trolley.

"And yeah, we're on our own up there."

"You can come down to our compartment if you want." Said Katie kindly.

"Bring your friend too, we'd be happy for some more company."

Angelina beamed at them.

"We may just do that. Thanks. Things can get so boring when it's just the two of you."

"We're never bored when its just the two of us are we George?"

"No Fred, but we're usually setting off Filibuster Fireworks in the kitchen instead of sitting in a train compartment."

Alicia rolled her eyes.

"I guess we should go back in now before these two start getting jealous of us making a new friend."

Angelina chuckled.

"Ok, I should get back to Lee too before he comes looking for me. See you later."

She dropped a handful of coins into the witch's hand and set off back down the corridor. Katie and Alicia moved back into their compartment and sat down; opening some of the food they'd just bought.

"Give us a chocolate frog Alicia." Said George reaching over for one, she slapped his hand away.

"Let me at least have one before you start guzzling them all down Fred!"

"Its George." He smirked.

"Can I have a Cauldron Cake Katie? Alicia's being mean!"

"I thought you two had sandwiches!" retorted Katie.

"Eat them before you come begging for scraps."

"But they're peanut butter!" moaned Fred.

"We don't like peanut butter!"

"That's too bad then." Answered Alicia with a smirk.

"You don't eat the sandwiches you don't get any sweets. Right Katie?"

Katie nodded solemnly and Fred began to argue with them. Whilst both girls were occupied George managed to reach over and grab hold of the bag of Fizzing Whizzbees.

"Give those back!" Alicia demanded.

"Come and get them." George teased.

He didn't actually expect Alicia to do so. She stood up and moved to grab for the sweets, but George was too quick.

"To you Fred!" he called, tossing the bag across to his twin who caught it.

Katie roared with laughter as she watched the two twins throwing the bag back and forth to keep Alicia from getting her hands back on it. It was when Alicia jumped at George to attempt to take him by surprise that the compartment door slid open once again revealing Angelina and a boy with dreadlocks.

All heads turned to see who was at the door and the bag, which Fred had managed to throw before Alicia reached him, smacked George in the side of the head. Alicia dived for it and grabbed it before either of the twins could react, letting out a triumphant cry and returning to her seat only to find that several of her Cauldron Cakes were now lying in between Fred and George. Ignoring this for the moment she turned to Angelina and the boy who had been roaring with laughter along with Katie when they saw the situation. The laughter dying down they entered the compartment and closed the door behind them.

"Hi Angelina." Said Alicia with all the dignity she could muster having just been caught throwing herself around the compartment to retrieve a bag of sweets, her cheeks reddening slightly with embarrassment.

"Hi." She laughed.

After everyone had stopped laughing Angelina introduced Lee and told them that they had been friends for several years. They all greeted him warmly, the twins like a long lost best friend when he mentioned he had a supply of Dr Filibuster's Fireworks in his trunk. They all chatted for a short time before Katie glanced at her watch.

"Hey, we should be nearly there by now. We'd better start getting changed. We're meant to be in our robes when we get there aren't we?"

Angelina nodded.

"Yep, we need to be changed when we get there. We're taken straight up to the school for the sorting."

Alicia, along with most of the others, felt nervous about the sorting. No one knew what it entailed; Katie said she thought it would be some sort of test. Alicia suspected Fred and George knew, but they hadn't said anything. She didn't press them for an answer; she supposed it couldn't be too bad. They wouldn't expect them to do anything too difficult with it being their first year.

Somewhat reluctantly Katie, Alicia and the twins got to their feet and moved over to their trunks in the corner, pulling out their school robes. Angelina and Lee had changed earlier, in their own compartment, so they remained seated. The train began to slow down as the four of them took off their jackets and pulled the Hogwarts robes on, and as Alicia had just put her jacket into her trunk in place of her robes the train shuddered to a halt.

"That's our stop." Said Lee cheerfully, bouncing out of his seat towards the door.

The others followed him out of the door less energetically and the group climbed off the train together to be greeted by a loud hail.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over this way! C'mon now firs' years!"

The group glanced around to find the origin of the voice and saw a large (to say the least) figure standing to the left of them. Alicia noted that even Fred and George seemed stunned by the size of the man, and they came from a wizarding family. It plainly wasn't normal to see men of that size walking around, even in the wizarding world.

"Is that all o' yeh? C'mon then, follow me."

The six friends hurried towards the large figure, who had turned and begun to lead a pack of students away from the train. They tagged onto the back of the group and followed the figure in silence.

"Firs' sight o' Hogwarts comin' up in a sec," He told the group of silent children.

"Jus' round this corner 'ere."

Everyone looked up as they turned the corner in the path the man was leading them down. They saw a great black pool of water, a lake, with tiny boats on their side. However they did not stare at the great lake for long. Their eyes were drawn upwards to a great castle upon the other side of the lake. Light shone through the castle windows making the building stand out in the eerie darkness of the night.

"Cool." Echoed the twins in unison.

"Wow," Katie whispered quietly to Angelina and Alicia.

"It looks so…"

"Magical?" suggested Alicia.

Katie nodded in silence. That was exactly how Alicia felt, and Alicia assumed that Angelina's silence meant that she agreed too.

The group had not stopped moving whilst they had been whispering amongst themselves about the great castle in the distance, and when they did stop many of them were surprised to find they'd reached the lake. Under the large man's guidance they clambered into boats, the twins, Alicia and Katie in one boat and Angelina and Lee in the next along with two students they didn't know.

The journey across the lake was uneventful for most boats, not however for one. Katie had been sitting staring out across the waters of the lake when she let out a shriek. Something had bitten her foot, she had felt it. Fred and George insisted it must have been a monster from the lake, but this only made Katie more agitated, her terrified movements threatening to tip over the boat.

Alicia had pulled her feet up onto her seat after Katie's terrified announcement and was trying to calm Katie down. She had instructed Fred and George to try and get hold of the creature and throw it overboard before Katie overturned the boat. They had objected at first but with Katie becoming more and more frantic they reluctantly agreed in the end, running their hands carefully along the floor of the boat until George's hand came into contact with something hard. He grabbed it quickly and held it up to the light, after a moment he spoke.

"Not to worry, its not a monster after all. Only a biting teacup. Must have fallen out of my pocket when we were getting into the boat."

Katie shrieked again, with rage this time, and hit George hard on the arm.

"You idiots! You told me it was a monster."

"Hey! We weren't to know!" said Fred defensively whilst George pulled out of range of any further blows from Katie.

Alicia was annoyed with them too.

"What are you doing with a biting teacup anyway?" she asked angrily.

George grinned.

"We were going to try and get Percy to drink out of it at the feast."

Despite her anger Alicia smiled slightly as she pictured Percy howling with pain with a biting teacup attached to his lip. Katie, however, didn't seem the least bit amused.

"You could have at least told us you had it with you! Then maybe we wouldn't have jumped to conclusions!"

"You never asked!" retorted Fred.

"We don't go detailing all our pranks to everyone!"

"Everythin' ok over there?" The man's voice called out from another boat.

Katie was forced to bite back her angry retort as Alicia called out nervously.

"Erm…yes. We're fine."

The voice didn't call out again. It seemed he had accepted what Alicia had said. Katie had taken to glaring at the twins and grumbling about them. Alicia smiled apologetically at the two of them before turning to Katie. They grinned back mischievously.

The rest of the journey was as uneventful as it was in the rest of the boats. They met up with Angelina and Lee once more when they reached the shore and were still answering questions as to what had happened on their boat when they reached the great oak front doors.

CRASH

Their conversation died as the large man hammered on the doors with his fist and they creaked slowly open. Behind them stood a black haired witch who looked extremely stern. Her face travelled over the group as the man addressed her.

"The firs' years, Professor. They're all 'ere."

"Thank you Hagrid." Replied the witch.

The man, whom they now knew was called Hagrid, nodded at the witch and walked past her into the hall. The witch ushered them all into the great entrance hall before flicking her wand at the doors, which closed behind them. She turned to the group of first years.

"I am Professor McGonagall. Welcome to Hogwarts. You will we taken into the Great Hall and sorted into your houses momentarily. Whilst you remain at Hogwarts your houses will be like your family. Your actions can either earn, or lose your house points. At the end of the year the house with the most points will be awarded the Inter House Cup. I am sure each and every one of you will do your best to assist your house's effort to obtain that prize."

There was a quiet murmur as the first years replied.

"Yes Professor."

"Very well, follow me please."

In silence the group of first years followed her out of the entrance hall and into a much larger chamber where…where the rest of the school were already seated.

"We're going to be sorted in front of everyone?" squeaked Alicia quietly.

There was no response, not even from the twins. They all seemed to be nervous. Alicia noted Angelina was trembling slightly. The group were brought to a halt once they reached the front of the chamber and they watched as an old man carried a small stool with a large battered hat on it towards them and placed it on the floor before shuffling off. The first years were staring at the hat, puzzled as to what a hat had to do with them being sorted into their houses. As they watched a large rip opened near the brim of the hat, and Alicia felt her jaw drop in astonishment as the hat began to…sing.

"_Another year, another time, for me to do my job,  
__For it's my task to look at you and sort and place you all.  
__Because I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat, a hat with common sense,  
__I may not be broad, I may not be tall  
__But I decide for one and all._

_Sit down and place me on your head and deep within I'll look,  
__Where do you belong you ask,  
__Where should I be?  
__That's not for you to choose my dears,  
__That task it falls to me._

_Could you belong in Gryffindor?  
__Where the brave of heart do dwell?  
__There daring, courage, chivalry  
__Will help you grow and swell._

_Or perhaps in dear old Hufflepuff,  
__A hard worker are you?  
__There loyalty and keenness to learn  
__Will helpto pull you through._

_Great ambition, do you have?  
__May Slytherin be for you?  
__If yours is wizard blood most pure and old  
__Then this just might be true._

_That leaves only Ravenclaw  
__Is that your true path?  
__There the best and brightest go  
__For those long years and laughs._

_Wherever I may place you  
__Worry not, you soon will see.  
__That there really isn't anywhere  
__A better judge than me."_

With that the rip flapped closed and the hat was silent. The first years simply gazed dumbstruck at the hat whilst applause echoed throughout the chamber as both the older years and the teachers clapped and cheered.

The gaze of the first years shifted again only when Professor McGonagall addressed them once more.

"When I call out your name you will sit on the stool and place the Sorting Hat upon your head. It will sort you into your individual houses. Once you have been sorted place the hat back upon the stool and take a place at your house table."

She indicated four long tables stretching across the chamber, filled with students from other years. Alicia relaxed slightly as she realised all they would have to do was try on a hat. She noticed Fred and George looked distinctly unsurprised. She was right; they had known what was coming. However they, along with everyone else, still looked nervous.

She assumed they were worried about what houses they would be placed in, Alicia didn't particularly mind as long as she was together with at least one of her new friends. She didn't want to be in a house with no one she knew. She hoped that whatever happened she would manage to avoid Slytherin though, from what the others had told her she certainly didn't want to be placed there. But of the other three she didn't mind, they all seemed decent enough, though Gryffindor seemed to appeal to her the most.

Her mind was jerked back to attention at the sound of Professor McGonagall's voice. She turned her head from the direction of her friends to see that the Professor was now holding a scroll of parchment, and registered her voice calling.

"Arkridge, Michael."

A small boy scuttled up to the stool as quickly as he could. He plainly wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible so that he could relax.

There was a moment's silence after he placed the hat upon his head before the rip opened once more and the hat bellowed.

"RAVENCLAW!"

One of the tables in the hall, Alicia assumed that it must be the Ravenclaw table, erupted into applause as Michael made his way over to them, his face scarlet with embarrassment.

"Ball, Adam."

This boy approached the hat apprehensively, as if he didn't quite trust it. He still put it upon his head though and the delay this time was considerably shorter before the hat was yelling.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Applause erupted from the Hufflepuff table this time, and Adam Ball made his way over to there and seated himself next to an older student, grinning broadly.

"Bell, Katie."

Alicia's head spun round, she had forgotten that Katie would be called so soon. Katie seemed to have frozen up. Alicia motioned to Angelina and together they gave her a little push forwards, that gave Katie the jolt she needed and she began walking slowly towards the hat on the stool.

"Good luck!" whispered Alicia, Angelina, Lee and the twins as Katie began moving.

Katie reached the stool and picked up the hat. She sat gratefully on the stool; she thought her legs were about to give under her. Carefully she placed the hat upon her head and it slid down her face, covering her eyes. She nearly squeaked in surprise as she heard the hat's voice, more quietly than before.

"Hmmm…lets see here. A hard worker….when you want to be. You have courage…lots of courage…and brave enough to stand up for yourself too…yes, I think I'd better put you in…GRYFFINDOR!"

Katie sighed in relief and removed the hat from her head. She began to walk over to the Gryffindor table giving her friends a weak smile as she did so showing that her nerves were beginning to disappear.

The group of friends still waiting to be sorted clapped hard for Katie, Angelina giving her a little wave when she smiled at them. They watched her sit down at the Gryffindor table before turning their attention back to Professor McGonagall, who had just called forwards another student.

They looked on and applauded politely as new students were sorted, the nerves of each of them building.

"Johnson, Angelina." Called Professor McGonagall.

Angelina nearly tripped over her robes as she hurried forward, wanting to get it out of the way quickly. As she pulled the hat over her head she hoped fervently that she'd be in Gryffindor with Katie. Her mother had been in Gryffindor and she knew that she'd be so proud if Angelina was sorted into there too.

She didn't even really have time to be shocked once the hat began whispering to her. It was over so quickly.

"Ah, an easy one. It's all there. Yes, defiantly GRYFFINDOR!"

'Thanks' she thought to the hat, as she pulled it off her head and near ran over to the Gryffindor table grinning broadly.

She sat down next to Katie, who gave her a quick hug in delight. But they didn't have time to celebrate much as Professor McGonagall was now calling out.

"Jordan, Lee."

Lee staggered up to the stool, all traces of the confidence he had shown on the train gone. He seemed to be in a trance, unaware of what was going on around him. He managed to get the hat upon his head, and then he waited. The whispering voice didn't surprise him; he wasn't really paying attention as it spoke really.

"Ah…a troublemaker for sure. You have potential…Ravenclaw perhaps? Hmmmm…no perhaps not, I sense you wouldn't apply yourself enough to fit in there…then I suppose it should be GRYFFINDOR!"

Katie and Angelina clapped and cheered along with the rest of the Gryffindor table as Lee staggered over to them and sat down opposite them.

"Congratulations." Katie whispered to both of them, as Jennifer King became a new Slytherin.

Angelina grinned at her and Lee smiled.

"Do you think the others will be in Gryffindor too?" he asked.

"As we're friends and all. Would it put us together?"

Katie shook her head.

"No. The hat can't place people according to friendships, its split up families before now. If the others are going to be with us in Gryffindor it has to be because they possess the necessary qualities."

"I hope they do end up with us." Angelina whispered excitedly.

"Wouldn't it be great if we were all together?"

The others smiled, and they turned back to the hat to watch Anthony Melsworth become another Ravenclaw.

As the sorting continued Alicia grew steadily paler. What if the hat put her in Slytherin? What if she was the only one out of her friends not in Gryffindor? She was white by the time Professor McGonagall called:

"Spinnet, Alicia."

She felt something prod her in the side, then the voice of the twins in her ear.

"You're up Alicia."

"Good luck."

She nodded slowly and felt her legs start moving. She felt the eyes of everyone in the hall upon her and started to feel sick, it felt like they were burning holes through her as they stared. She felt very grateful that the hat slid completely over her eyes, so that she didn't have to see them all watching her. She visibly jumped when she heard the hat whispering quietly and heard a few people in the hall chuckle. She was too terrified to care; she just listened to the hat.

"Ah, a strange one. This will be difficult. You're very keen to learn magic I see, keen to prove that you're a witch. I think….maybe Hufflepuff…but you're daring…oh yes very daring. That's a Gryffindor quality…"

Alicia's heart leapt as she heard him mention Gryffindor.

'Please.' She thought.

'I want to be with my friends.'

"I can't place you just to be with your friends you know…they're Gryffindor's I see…at least, those who have been sorted so far are…Hmmmmm, you could do well there…could…if you apply yourself properly. Are you sure?"

'Yes' Alicia thought desperately.

"Very well then…GRYFFINDOR!"

Alicia squeaked in delight as she pulled the hat off her head and ran full tilt to the Gryffindor table, which was giving her the usual round of applause. Sitting down next to Angelina she hugged both her and Katie in delight. Lee congratulated her from across the table and she thanked him. She didn't think she'd ever stop smiling. She was together with her friends and that was all that mattered.

By the time she had settled down enough to concentrate on the hat again five more students had been sorted, there had been no new Gryffindors though. There were only three students left. A black haired girl and the twins.

She watched as the girl was sorted into Slytherin, and she joined their house table with a smirk upon her face. Then, it was Fred's turn.

"Weasley, Frederick."

Fred moved forwards, his face unreadable. The group of friends watched from the Gryffindor table as he placed the hat upon his head.

'Weasley is it? I've dealt with too many of you. Simple choice. GRYFFINDOR!"

The group of friends clapped along with the rest of the table as Fred joined them, choosing a seat next to Lee. He smiled at them.

"Knew it." He whispered.

"The whole family's been in Gryffindor. Sure thing really."

Alicia noted that Percy hadn't congratulated his brother; she supposed he was probably still annoyed about the trolley prank earlier. He'd get round to congratulating them later, better to just let things settle first.

"Weasley, George."

George stepped up to the hat, he looked pretty confident. Alicia admired the fact that he could retain the confidence she had observed in him at Kings Cross when he was about to undergo such a nerve-wracking moment.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat bellowed after barely touching George's head. The group of friends cheered as loudly as they could as George made his way over and sat next to Fred. They were all in Gryffindor!

They had barely finished congratulating each other when an old wizard stood up at the teacher's table and cleared his throat. The group halted their discussion and turned to face him. His eyes twinkled kindly as he looked around the chamber and he smiled.

"Welcome one and all to Hogwarts. Welcome for the first time to some of you, and welcome back to others. I am sure you are all famished, so I will leave the announcements until after you have all eaten your fill of our magnificent feast. For now, enjoy."

* * *

**A/N:** Phew, that was a long one. 11 pages. I hope I didn't waffle too much. Next time we'll see the remainder of that night and their first day hopefully. 

A major thank you to the three people who've reviewed so far. Your positive comments inspired me to finish this chapter off today.

Please keep reviewing everyone; I revel in reading your comments, good or bad.


	3. Of Potions, Pranks and Parchment

Disclaimer: Sue me not! The franchise isn't mine!

**Chapter Three – Of Potions, Pranks and Parchment**

The group turned back to face the table again and were met with the sight of food materialising on the dozens of plates in front of them. For most of them this was nothing special, it was a simple piece of magic that they'd seen before, but for Alicia it was astonishing.

She watched in delight as all of the plates upon the table filled up with different kinds of food. This was magic, soon she'd be learning these type of things. That thought alone made her feel excited. Following the lead of the others she began to fill her plate with the newly appeared food, taking a little of everything. The group talked amongst themselves as they ate, discussing the sorting mainly. They told one another what they'd heard the hat mutter to them when it was upon their head, and laughed together when Fred told them he'd been told he was too heroic and devilishly handsome NOT to be in Gryffindor.

When the puddings arrived to replace the main course the conversation changed as Fred and George told them all that Percy had told them about their upcoming classes. Fred and George were looking forward to flying lessons so that they could get up in the air, they told the rest they'd been flying for years, playing Quidditch with their older brothers back home, and they loved it. Alicia liked the sound of Charms, whilst Lee told them all he wanted to try out Astronomy. Angelina and Katie, on the other hand, both liked the sound of Transfiguration. It was unsurprising that no one chose Potions as the subject they were most looking forward to, as George pointed out a man on the teachers table who taught the class, telling them all that his brothers had told him many tales of his dislike of Gryffindor house in particular.

By the time the plates had been wiped clean of the desserts they had moved on to listening to Fred, George and Lee try to outdo each other with their crude jokes that elicited more groans than laughs from the girls. They were interrupted when the old man (whom George had pointed out as Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster) again rose to his feet and cleared his throat. They all turned back round to face him, abandoning their conversation.

"I trust you have all eaten your fill." Said Professor Dumbledore kindly, smiling around at his students.

"I'm afraid I must now interrupt you all to give out a few notices. Firstly, all first years should note that the forest in the castle grounds is out of bounds to all."

At this Alicia noticed out of the corner of her eye that the twins had turned to each other and raised their eyebrows.

"Quidditch trails will be held over the course of next week, please note that only second years and above may try out for their house Quidditch team. If you wish to put your name down for a trial then please see your head of house as soon as possible."

"Why shouldn't first years be allowed on the team? We've as much right as anyone." they heard Angelina whisper. But before any of them could respond Professor Dumbledore continued.

"Mr Filch has also asked me to remind you all that the use of magic within school corridors is strictly forbidden and anyone breaking this rule shall be subject to the usual cheery interview with Mr Filch himself."

A laugh went up around the hall from the older students. Fred and George seemed to understand the professor's joke but the rest of the six friends didn't. As the laughter died down Fred mouthed at them.

"We'll tell you later."

They nodded and turned back to Dumbledore again, who had once more resumed talking.

"Now I am sure you are all very tired, it is time for some rest. First years should follow their house Prefects who will lead you to your house common room. Thank you all and goodnight."

With that he sat down once again and the six of them pulled themselves to their feet. Weaving in between other students heading for the exit to the hall they approached a student a few years older than them who was wearing a shiny Prefect badge.

"Who'd want to be a prefect? It'd take all the fun out of life. You'd have to have a really boring life to want to give everything up just for a badge!" George said to them loudly.

The prefect glared down at him and turned to lead the group out of the hall. Angelina turned to George.

"What are you doing? The last thing we need is the prefects thinking we're troublemakers on our first day!"

"Relax!" George said quietly. "I'm just trying to see how much he'll take. It'll be useful for some of our…ideas."

He indicated Fred as he spoke and the two of them grinned devilishly. Angelina looked like she was going to object for a moment, but Alicia interrupted her.

"Oh let them have their fun, as long as we stay out of it we're alright."

"Fine. But don't expect me to join in with any of your pranks." Angelina snapped at the twins. George grinned at Alicia.

"Thanks."

Alicia grinned back; to tell the truth she was partial to the odd prank every now and again. They livened things up a bit. She didn't want Angelina stomping her foot down on every prank that reared its head.

As they walked through the castle the boys continued to comment loudly how only people who weren't right in the head would want to be a prefect, Alicia having difficulty holding in fits of laughter whenever the prefect turned round to glare, and Angelina was frowning disapprovingly at the twins. Finally the prefect stopped the group and lectured them on how they should be a bit more mature and have a bit more respect for older students. He then ordered that all of them walk in silence until they reach the common room. When they continued walking the whole lot of them burst into a fit of silent laughter, even Angelina, each of one them congratulating George in whispers for putting a humorous end on their day.

When they reached a portrait of a very plump lady hanging on the wall the prefect stopped the group.

"This is the Fat Lady." He said, indicating the portrait behind him.

"She is the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room. In order to enter you'll need to give her the password. Our password for this term is 'Venomous Tentacula'. Venomous Tentacula, got that? Whatever you do don't forget it. You won't be able to get into the common room without it."

They all nodded, so the prefect turned and gave the password to the Fat Lady. They watched as the portrait swung open, revealing a very comfortable looking Common Room with a staircase on the left and the right. When they were all inside the portrait closed behind them and the prefect addressed them once more.

"Boys, your dormitory can be found at the top of the staircase to the left, and girls yours is at the top of the staircase to the right. You'll find all your things have been taken up to your room."

Again the group nodded, and the prefect saw his job as done. He turned and walked over to a group of older students sat around the fireplace leaving the six friends alone.

"Guess we should go up to bed then." Said Katie, glancing at the other two girls as she spoke.

"I've got some things I need to unpack before tomorrow."

Angelina and Alicia agreed. The boys did not.

"Unpack? What for? You'll be going home again in four months time!" complained Lee.

"Come on, just one game of Exploding Snap first! I'll go and grab my cards from my trunk."

Angelina rolled her eyes.

"Unlike you three we aren't happy with leaving everything we own screwed up in a trunk for four months."

Alicia nodded fervently and Fred rolled his eyes.

"Why not? It saves time! If you leave things where they are then you wont have to repack them come Christmas!"

"That maybe Lee but if we leave them where they are for four months then whenever we need a change of clothes we'll be so full of creases Professor McGonagall would look wrinkle free." Katie retorted.

They all burst out laughing.

"Well you'd better be off then. I don't think I could stand seeing three McGonagall's strolling into the common room every day." Laughed Fred.

"Katie and Angelina turned and began to head for the staircase to the right.

"Night." They called as they went.

"Meet in the common room before breakfast tomorrow right?" Alicia said.

"That way we can all go down together."

"We're so irresistible you can't bear to go without us for a day?" asked George, smirking.

"Idiots." She said as she turned to follow Katie and Angelina.

"Just don't forget."

"Alright, alright, we'll meet down here."

"Good. Night then."

"Night." They called after her.

When she had disappeared from view they turned to each other.

"Suppose we'd better head on up too then, we can play that game of Exploding Snap up there if you're still interested." Fred said to Lee.

"Sure." Replied Lee.

"We've got all night."

Together they climbed the staircase on the left until they reached a door marked 'First Years'. They pushed it open and entered the room, closing it behind them.

Time at Hogwarts seemed to rush past at twice the normal speed for all of them. The October half term approached and each of them could remember their first day as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. In the one and a half month gap between the present and their first day the six of them had become firm friends. Each morning they met up in the common room before heading down to the Great Hall for breakfast, and they sat together in all of their classes. For the most part they were enjoying their lessons, aside from Potions of course, which they had found to actually be worse than George had originally described.

Their teacher, Professor Snape, seemed to have developed a dislike for them as soon as he set eyes on them. They assumed simply this was because they were in Gryffindor, having been assured by Percy that Snape behaved in the same way toward the Gryffindor's in his class.

Unfortunately it worked out that double Potions was their last lesson before the half term break began, and thus it was that all six of them were sat around a bench weighing out ingredients. Snape was prowling around amongst the cauldrons of the Hufflepuff students (they were paired with Hufflepuff for Potions) doling out harsh criticisms as he reached each student.

Alicia was bored, Potions didn't interest her at all and she often found that Professor Snape made her nervous, causing her to make simple mistakes in her work. She wasn't really paying much attention to her Potion, her mind thinking ahead to the week of free time ahead of them. She was jolted to attention when George hissed in her ear.

"What are you doing?"

"What?" she whispered back, confused.

She glanced over to Snape, he had reached the last Hufflepuff student, any moment now he'd be heading over here.

"You've deformed your rat spleen!" George hissed, pointing down at the table in front of her where she had absent-mindedly been chopping up her rat spleen into far too thin sections.

"Damn!" she cursed. This would give Snape yet another excuse to pick on her, he seemed to revel in it. Every lesson he would find some reason to make nasty comments about her work.

"Give it here." George told her hurriedly.

Alicia pushed her now ruined rat spleen towards him.

"What are you going to do? It's too late now. I'll just have to…"

"Well, well, well…"

Alicia froze and looked up to see Snape leering down at them from above George's cauldron.

"What have you done to that spleen Weasley? Plainly you were not listening when I told you that it needed to be sliced into pieces precisely one centimetre in width."

George said nothing, Alicia gaped as she watched him getting criticised for her mistake. What was he doing? He'd get marked down. She felt something wet and slippery make contact with her hand and almost gasped out in shock. She glanced down quickly to see what it was and saw that it was George's own rat spleen, clutched in his hand. He wanted her to take it before Snape saw anything.

She took it out of his hand quickly, sliding it up onto her desk whilst Snape continued to make nasty comments about George's Potion making skills.

"If you put that into your potion it would be rendered useless. I think we'll make that a well rounded 0 for this potion shall we?"

Alicia's jaw dropped. She owed him, big time. Snape had warned her that if she received one more 0 then she would have to take remedial potions to improve. George had saved her from an extra two hours a week with Snape.

Snape smirked at George before moving on to her.

"How surprising Miss Spinnet. You have actually managed to do something right for a change. Ensure you are very careful cutting up your spleen. I don't particularly want to have to see any more of you than I have to each week."

Alicia glanced down the table at the others, all of whom were glaring at Snape. She looked up again as Snape dipped his finger into her potion.

"Far too thick, you didn't stir it nearly enough girl. This scores barely above 20. It would more likely kill an animal than shrink it."

Her face went red as she stared down at the desk, only looking up when Snape moved on to Lee, who was on her other side. She gave George a grateful smile before turning her full attention to the new spleen. She had to get this one right.

An hour later they all trailed out of the dungeon and started up the gloomy corridor back to the Entrance Hall. Alicia gave George a quick hug once they'd moved out of sight of the dungeon entrance.

"Thanks George, I owe you one." She said with a smile.

"Don't mention it." Replied George.

"I don't particularly care what Snape thinks anyway."

Angelina and Katie were berating Fred and Lee in the background for yelling out:

"Oooooooooo, Alicia loves George!" when she hugged him.

Alicia laughed as she turned back round to see Fred being shoved roughly down the corridor by an annoyed Angelina and Lee trying to explain to Katie that it had been a joke with little success.

"Got any ideas for what to do during the holiday?" she asked George.

"Nah, just planning to relax mainly. We've got something planned for after the feast tonight though."

Alicia frowned.

"You'd better not do anything whilst Angelina is around, you know ho much she hates your pranks."

George nodded solemnly.

"Yeah, she's the reason why we're waiting until after the feast. She'd go ballistic if she found out we were the ones wreaking havoc during mealtime."

They continued walking in silence; they had nearly reached the Entrance Hall by now. Alicia was the one to break the silence.

"So what are you planning exactly?"

George grinned at her.

"I knew you'd be interested. Fred thought you'd be more likely to take Angelina's side, but I get the feeling you like our little pranks. Am I right?"

Alicia blushed slightly and grinned sheepishly.

"Well…yeah. A bit. They keep me entertained and all."

George chuckled.

"Good, that's what they're meant for. Entertaining people."

He left it at that, Alicia waited for a moment to see if he would continue. When he didn't she spoke up again.

"You didn't answer my question."

"I know."

"Well? Are you going to answer?"

"No. You'll have to wait and see if you're interested."

"What? Oh come on, you can tell me!" she whined.

George chuckled.

"I'm not going to tell. It's taken us two days to set up. Wait and see. Be in the Entrance Hall after dinner."

Alicia frowned for a moment, displeased that he wasn't going to tell her.

"Fine. I'll be there." She replied finally.

"But it better be worth it."

George simply continued grinning at her.

"Don't worry, it will be."

It was about ten minutes after they'd left the Great Hall that Fred, George, Lee and Alicia entered the Entrance Hall. They'd gone back to Gryffindor tower with Angelina and Katie originally, but had given them the slip when they'd gone up to their dormitory to fetch something.

"Right," said Fred.

"We should get started. Alicia, get inside that broom cupboard over there."

"What?" yelled Alicia indignantly.

"Why me?"

"Because you aren't part of the prank, you're just a bystander." Answered Lee with a wink

After insisting that unless she did as she was told they wouldn't pull the prank Alicia trooped grumbling into the broom cupboard and closed the door to, so that there was just enough of a gap for her to see through.

She watched and listened as each of the boys pulled out their wands and performed the hover charm on different objects. George was levitating a dungbomb at the top of the stairs leading into the hall, Fred was levitating another dungbomb at the ground level entrance to the hall, and Lee was levitating a rather large suit of armour, and moving it so that it was in the middle of the hall.

"Ok Alicia!" George called.

"Whatever you do stay in that cupboard. Filch won't find you there."

She didn't answer, she had a good idea of what they were planning now. She would have felt sorry for Filch if he hadn't reported Katie for making her bag float alongside her so that she didn't have to carry it last week.

"Here goes!" Called Lee.

CRASH

Lee had dropped his wand and the suit of armour crashed to the floor with an ear-splitting noise. He dashed to the cupboard where Alicia was hiding, pulled open the door, dashed inside and pulled the door to once more. Alicia elbowed him out of the way until she could see out of the crack once more. By now there was a sound of thundering footfalls approaching, it was Filch.

He came dashing through the ground floor entrance to the hall and ran slap bang into the dungbomb Fred was levitating there. He spluttered at the dungbomb exploded, filling the air around him with the scent it contained. Fred and George were roaring with laughter, but when Filch roared it certainly wasn't due to amusement. He made a dart towards Fred and George who ducked out of reach and dashed up the stairs, George making the dungbomb he was carrying zoom back into his pocket as he went. Filch tore after them, yelling with fury, leaving Lee and Alicia laughing so hard they had tears streaming down their faces in the cupboard.

It took them five full minutes to calm down and stop laughing so hard. They wiped the tears of laughter from their eyes and emerged from the cupboard, closing it behind them.

"What now?" asked Alicia, her voice still shaking with laughter.

"Back to the common room I guess." Replied Lee.

"Boy was that worth the last 2 nights of planning."

"Definitely. I'll never forget that look on Filch's face." Replied Alicia, spluttering into another wave of laughter as she pictured it again.

Together they headed up the stairs and towards Gryffindor Tower, thinking they'd meet Fred and George there.

However Fred and George had not made it there. They'd reached the third floor, Filch still thundering behind them, Fred grabbed the handle of the nearest door and tugged. Nothing happened. George grabbed hold of the handle too and together the tugged, still nothing. By the time they realised it was simply one of the many trick doorways that littered the school it was too late, Filch was upon them.

"Well then…" he spat.

"Think this is funny do you? Wreaking havoc in the corridors, using forbidden items on the school premises, using magic in the corridors…I'll have you I will. Follow me."

He pushed them roughly forwards, making them walk in front of him as he led them to his office.

"There was a time I'd have you hanging by your wrists in the dungeons for this." He told them nastily as they walked.

"Oh yes, before the old punishments died. The new ones aren't as satisfying, oh no. But they're effective. Lets see how a weeks worth of detentions over the holidays suits you."

Fred and George didn't say a word. Whatever punishment Filch gave them it had been worth it, the prank had come off splendidly and they could still smell the scent of dung wafting around Filch.

When they reached Filch's office they were pushed inside where his cat (Mrs Norris) was curled up on a comfy chair. Filch followed and slammed the door behind them, muttering to himself as he searched for his notebook to record their 'crime' as he called it. Whilst Filch's back was turned to them Fred nudged George, pointing to a drawer next to him marked 'Confiscated and Highly Dangerous.'

George raised his eyebrows as he saw it and dipped his hand into his pocket, pulling out the unused dungbomb and showing it to Fred. Fred nodded at him and George grinned, moving away from Fred to the other side of the office.

Just as Filch picked up his shabby little notebook out of a drawer in his desk George threw the dungbomb directly at him. Mrs Norris hissed and screeched as the smell began to fill the room, and Filch roared, spinning round to face George, yelling obscenities as he did so. After several minutes of being yelled at George was grabbed by the neck of his robes by Filch and marched over the door, which Filch opened, and thrown physically out. A moment later Fred followed.

"Mark my words, professor McGonagall will hear about this!" roared Filch, slamming his door so hard that the twins thought the hinges were going to come off.

Picking themselves off the floor the twins ran for it before Filch could change his mind. They didn't stop until they reached the Fat Lady, gasping the password and dashing into the crowded common room. Before they could do anything they had Alicia and Lee bearing down upon them, demanding to know where they'd been. It took them a moment to regain their breath before they could respond, but when they could speak they related everything to them.

Lee and Alicia nearly collapsed with laughter when George told them he'd dropped another dungbomb right inside Filch's office. Out of the corner of their eye they could see Angelina and Katie, who were sitting at a table trying to do their homework, eyeing them curiously, and that only made them laugh harder.

"What did you get from the drawer?" Lee finally managed to ask in between waves of laughter.

Fred pulled a piece of old parchment out of his robes.

"This."

George looked puzzled.

"But that's just a bit of old parchment. What was it doing in a drawer marked 'Confiscated and Highly Dangerous'?"

"There must be more to it than meets the eye." Said Alicia.

"Filch wouldn't confiscate it for nothing. We just have to work out what its hiding and how to reveal it.

They all agreed and Fred slipped the parchment back into his robes.

"I'll take it upstairs later." He told them. "For now we should probably change the subject. Angelina and Katie are looking at us like we've all just sprouted three heads."

This comment set off another wave of laughter, and the group of them headed over to Angelina and Katie's table, struggling to put an end to their laughter.

* * *

**A/N:** Another chapter done. I originally intended to describe their first day of lessons, but in the end I decided not to. Wanted to skip ahead and address the Marauder's Map issue.

The prank took me some time to think up, I didn't want it to just be dropping a dungbomb in between lessons. That seemed boring. Hopefully my way was more entertaining.

Not sure what will be in the next chapter yet. You'll just have to wait and see.

My thanks again to those who've taken the time to review so far. Those of you who haven't please find time to if you can. I'm hungry for more reviews.


	4. A Secret Revealed

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter Universe doesn't belong to me, so don't sue me. Pity really, the things I'd do if I did own it…

**A/N: **At this point I'd like to say a big thanks to Eruaphadriel and KitKat001 who've taken the time to review every chapter I've written so far. Your comments mean a lot to me and inspired me to write this chapter sooner than planned. Thanks.

I'd also like to thank my friend Sam who has found time between burning food in general to read over this chapter and the last one before I submitted them. Big thumbs up to you.

**Chapter Four – A Secret Revealed**

It wasn't until the next morning at breakfast that Fred and George even thought about the possible repercussions of the actions of the previous night. They knew of course that there would be repercussions, the last time Filch had let a student off the hook for breaking school rules was ancient history, and the fact that they had flouted school rules so badly further decreased their chances of escaping unpunished. But they hadn't considered what those repercussions could be.

The six of them were leaving the Entrance Hall after breakfast, intending to head up to Gryffindor Tower when it happened.

"Mr Weasley." A voice snapped from the bottom of the stairs they were climbing.

Both Fred and George turned, the voice having not specified which of them it was talking to. As their eyes fell upon Professor McGonagall they knew they were in trouble. Her face was hard, cold fury blazed in her eyes, and her lips were thinner than they had ever seen them. When she continued speaking her voice was hard and cold.

"Follow me please."

"Which one of us Professor?" asked Fred, already knowing the answer in his heart.

"Both of you, immediately."

They didn't dare argue. They turned to tell their friends that they'd meet them in the Gryffindor common room later and were met with the look of worry plastered across the faces of both Lee and Alicia, along with the look of puzzlement on Katie and Angelina's faces.

"See you later." Said George glumly, before the two of them turned and made their way back down the stairs.

Professor McGonagall didn't speak as she led them through the dark corridors of the castle and they knew this was a bad sign. They could almost feel the anger radiating out at them from the silence. They knew what had happened of course. Filch had done exactly what he'd threatened to do, gone to Professor McGonagall and reported everything that had happened the previous night. They didn't dare speak to each other as they walked, even in whispers. They were in enough trouble already and didn't want to give Professor McGonagall more reason to yell at them.

When they reached her office Professor McGonagall threw open the door.

"Inside." She snapped.

They trooped in, wincing slightly as the door slammed behind them. Professor McGonagall rounded her desk and faced them, the fury that had been shimmering in her eyes spreading across the rest of her face.

"Never in all my time at Hogwarts have I had two students of my own house disgust me so much! Nothing gives you the right to behave in such a manner; you should be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves! Dropping dungbombs in corridors is one thing, but using them in such a manner and then proceeding to make use of them in Mr Filch's own office is going much too far!"

"Professor…" began Fred quietly.

"I do not want to hear it Mr Weasley! This is beyond excuse! Thirty house points will be taken from Gryffindor for your disgusting behaviour and the two of you will be on detention every night for the next two weeks. I have never been so ashamed to have students as members of my house. Think on that."

Fred and George remained silent, there was no point in arguing, that much was plain. Not that they cared about house points, but they knew others did, and provoking Professor McGonagall to take more would simply be asking for trouble.

"A letter has been sent home to your parents regarding this disgraceful exhibition. You will report back here at precisely nine o'clock this evening for your first detention."

"Yes Professor." They mumbled quietly.

Professor McGonagall simply watched them for a moment. Finally she broke the silence.

"Get out." She spat.

"And count yourselves lucky. If you EVER try anything like this again I will not be so lenient."

The two of them turned to the door and left the room as quickly as they could. As Fred closed the door behind them they could almost physically feel the tension lifting from the air. They walked slowly as they made their way back to Gryffindor Tower.

"Two weeks…" moaned Fred.

"What on earth is she going to have us doing that'll take two weeks worth of detentions?"

"All I can say is that piece of parchment better be worth it." Grumbled George.

"If it turns out that its useless then we'll have added that extra week of detentions for nothing."

Fred groaned.

"Knowing our luck at the moment it'll just turn out to be a piece of old parchment that was shoved in there by mistake. Why something else couldn't have been at the front of that drawer I'll never know."

The two of them turned into the corridor with the Fat Lady at the end of it.

"We should give the thing to Alicia before we do our detention tonight, let her have a look at it. She's good at Charms, she can check for invisible ink and that sort of stuff. Well, not as good as Katie, but since Katie doesn't know about this whole mess we can't give it to her." Fred told George.

George nodded back at him.

"Yeah, if any of the four of us can find out what that parchment is it'll be Alicia. Lets face it; the two of us and Lee aren't exactly great shakes at spells and stuff. Venomous Tentacula."

The portrait swung open in front of them and they climbed through it. They hadn't even had a chance to close it behind them when Angelina reached them. She had strode across the common room to them with the others following in her wake.

"What have you two done now?" she asked.

"Nothing." Replied Fred simply, doing his best to keep his face neutral.

"Oh come on." Added Katie.

"The look on McGonagall's face could have melted ice. You must have done something."

"Don't know what you're talking about." Replied George in exactly the same manner as Fred.

"McGonagall just wanted to talk to us about our Transfiguration homework, that's all."

Both Katie and Angelina looked thoroughly unconvinced, Lee and Alicia just looked nervous. George thought he should try and change the subject before Angelina started to push at them for the truth.

"Anyway, it's the holidays now. We shouldn't be worrying about things like homework. Who's up for a game of Exploding Snap?" he asked hopefully.

"Me." Blurted out Alicia quickly.

"I'll go and get the cards." Added Lee, turning and sprinting up the spiral staircase to their dormitory.

Luckily this seemed to work, Katie and Angelina seemed sufficiently distracted from Professor McGonagall as they began to complain about them always losing at Exploding Snap and how likely it was that the boys were fixing the deck. As Fred energetically denied this ('How could you suggest we could do such a thing?') and guided the two of them over to the armchairs Alicia dropped back to walk alongside George.

"What did McGonagall really want? Was it about last night?" she whispered.

"Yeah. She was giving us our punishments." Replied George.

"What…" Alicia began, but was interrupted as Lee arrived back at the bottom of the stairs and they moved over to the others to start the game.

The day dragged onwards, the six friends spending their time playing different games in the common room, unable to go out into the grounds due to the rain that had started up at around lunchtime. At about quarter to nine in the evening Katie and Lee were engaged in a game of Wizards Chess, the other four watching. Fred glanced at his watch and nudged George, showing him the time. The two of them stood up.

"Hey Alicia, can we talk for a minute?" asked Fred.

Alicia looked up from the board and nodded. Standing and leaving Angelina to watch the match she walked out of the common room with the twins, climbed past the Fat Lady, and walked just out of earshot of her before they stopped her.

"Alicia…" said Fred.

"We can't stay long, got a detention with McGonagall." Continued George.

Fred put his hand inside his robes and pulled out the piece of parchment they'd taken from Filch's Office the night before.

"Here." He said, holding it out to her.

"We thought that you'd be the best person to give it to in order to figure out what it is. You're the best at Charms out of the four of us…"

Alicia blushed slightly as George continued.

"If that parchment is hiding something we know you'll find it."

They grinned as Alicia blushed even redder.

"Umm…ok. I'll have a go at it tonight."

"Great. Give it us back in the morning will you? Not sure what time we'll be back, McGonagall didn't tell us what we're going to be doing."

"Sure."

Fred nudged George again, pointing at his watch. He smiled apologetically.

"Sorry Alicia, we've got to get going. With the mood she was in this morning we probably shouldn't be late."

With one last smile they turned round and left the corridor, leaving Alicia alone. She stood there for a moment, looking down at the parchment in her hands, and thought. Then she tucked it into her robes, turned and made her way back to the Fat Lady, giving the password and climbing through the portrait hole.

"Where've the twins gone?" called Angelina as Alicia climbed through the portrait hole.

"Erm…I'm not sure." She answered.

"They didn't say."

Angelina seemed to accept her answer and turned back to the game.

"Listen, I'm going to go and get an early night." Said Alicia, moving over to the armchairs where the others were sat.

"I didn't get much sleep last night."

She was lying through her teeth there. Last night she'd been asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. But what else could she say? She needed to get upstairs so she could take a look at that parchment. She couldn't look at it down in the common room without Angelina and Katie demanding to know what it was.

"Alright." Said Angelina.

"I'll probably come up in about an hour or so. I'm not that tired yet."

"Ok. See you later." Replied Alicia.

Katie and Lee hadn't looked up from their game. Alicia climbed the spiral staircase leading to the girls' dormitories and entered the room she shared with Angelina and Katie. She closed the door behind her and took out the piece of parchment as she crossed over to her bed (the one on the right). She slumped down onto the bed with the parchment in her hand and leaned over the side, pulling 'The Standard Book of Spells (Grade One) by Miranda Goshawk' out of her school bag, which was lying alongside the bed.

She pulled herself up into a sitting position and opened the book at the Contents page, searching for a spell that could be relevant to revealing invisible ink. She'd decided to start with checking for invisible ink as it was the most obvious way to hide information. Even if it didn't reveal anything it gave her a starting point.

It took her a couple of minutes to find the relevant entry in the contents page and flip to the page it listed, she then spent several minutes studying the diagrams displayed in the book, showing her the correct wand movement for the spell. Finally she was ready.

Carefully she flicked her wand towards the parchment that was lying upon the bed in front of her and said:

"Revelius!"

Nothing happened, the parchment stayed as blank as ever. Alicia tried the spell again, still nothing.

"Not invisible ink then." She muttered to herself, flicking over the page.

She skimmed it quickly, her eyes taking in as much as they could. Her eyes stopped dead halfway down the page at a sentence which read:

'_Some magical objects can be charmed to only reveal the information they conceal when the user utters a particular phrase or when a particular person speaks in the object's vicinity, however this is high level magic which will be discussed further in The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 6).'_

Her mind buzzed as she considered this sentence. Could this piece of parchment be charmed in such a way? If it was charmed to be voice activated they'd had it. The owner had likely left Hogwarts long ago, and thus the map would be useless. But the idea of a particular phrase activating it…that was certainly a possibility, however there were an infinite number of possible phrases in the English language, how on earth would she be able to find out which?

Deciding to simply guess for now she raised her wand and tapped the parchment.

"Show your secret." She said.

Still nothing happened, the parchment remained as blank as ever. She decided to try again.

"What do you conceal?" she asked.

Once more she was met with the familiar result of nothing. She frowned. Maybe this wasn't the right way to get the parchment to reveal what it was concealing after all. Maybe she was just wasting her time. Deciding to try one more time she tapped the parchment with her wand once more and said.

"I am the owner of this parchment. I command you to reveal what you conceal."

For a split second she thought she had failed once more. Then black lines began to appear slowly on the paper, as if fading into being. She watched as more lines appeared, and the lines became letters, the letters became words. She leaned closer to the parchment, reading the miniscule writing.

_Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs would like to congratulate you for gaining possession of this parchment and would like to inquire how it happens to be in your possession._

Alicia blinked. She must be going mad. A piece of parchment was talking to her. Perhaps she was tired after all, so tired in fact that she was hallucinating. She rubbed her eyes then looked down at the parchment once more, the words were still there. She didn't know why she decided to answer the question, she simply spluttered out the answer in shock.

"I…Friends of mine took it from Filch's office."

The words faded from the parchment and once more lines began to appear, forming letters, forming words. Once more she waited until the lines had stopped appearing before leaning in close to read the writing they had formed.

_Mr Padfoot would like to congratulate you for removing this parchment from that oaf Mr Filch's possession._

_Mr Moony wonders how someone so stupid happened to gain possession of this parchment in the first place._

_Mr Prongs agrees with his esteemed colleagues and registers his relief that someone with an IQ greater than a cat's is now in possession of this parchment._

_Mr Wormtail wonders whether you know what exactly this parchment is._

Alicia gaped. Had the parchment heard her? It must have done, she supposed, since it was now aware that it had been in Filch's possession. Did it know who Filch was, she wondered. No, it couldn't, she decided. It wasn't all knowing, was it? After a moment she realised that she still hadn't answered the question the parchment had asked her. She supposed she may as well answer, maybe it could tell her what its purpose was.

"No, I don't." she answered.

"I was actually trying to find out when you started…talking to me."

Once more she watched the writing fade and new words slowly form on the page. This time when she read it there was no mention of the odd names it had used earlier, it simply read:

_Can we trust you?_

Her mouth went dry. This was it, it was going to tell her what it's secret was, she could feel it.

"Yes." She blurted out.

She watched eagerly as more words formed under the question.

_In order to make us reveal our secret simply tap the map with your wand and state 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good', and to wipe it clean once more simply tap it again and say 'Mischief Managed'._

_Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs hope you enjoy and make good use of **The Marauder's Map.**_

The words lay there on the page in front of her. She had done it. She had found the secret. For some reason she was nervous as she tapped the parchment with her wand once more, stating:

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

At once the writing currently on the paper vanished and once more black lines began to form upon the page, this time forming the words:

_Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs_

_Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers_

_Are proud to present…_

_THE MARAUDER'S MAP_

As soon as Alicia had read the words they were gone, faded back into the parchment once more. And in its place came hundreds of the lines, all over the parchment. She watch as, this time, the lines did not form words. They formed a sort of map. She realised quickly what it was a map of, Hogwarts. She audibly gasped as her eyes travelled across the map, taking in each and every room displayed and the small black dots that littered amongst them. She saw a black dot labelled 'Alicia Spinnet' at the top of the map's representation of Gryffindor Tower. She was amazed. Oh Fred and George would love her once they saw what this was. She had to show them, now. She couldn't wait until morning.

She stood up, stuffed her wand into her pocket, picked up the map and ran to the door. She raced down the stairs and through the common room, stopping only long enough to open the portrait, ignoring the calls of 'Alicia?' that echoed behind her.

She raced down the corridors, keeping her eyes fixed on the map in her hands.

She took great care to avoid any of the dots on the map. The last thing she needed was someone catching her about the castle with this map and seeing what it was. Finally she came to a halt outside Professor McGonagall's office, gasping for breath. A quick glance at the map told her Professor McGonagall was inside with the twins. It figured, she'd have to wait for their detention to finish. She slumped down onto the floor next to the office door and sat there, waiting for the twins to emerge.

She sat there for just over an hour, her eyes never leaving the map in her hands. She took in its every detail, watching as the small dots moved around the castle's many rooms and corridors. She had tried the 'Mischief managed' spell that the parchment had told her once, just to see whether it would work or not. But she summoned the map back onto the page almost straightaway.

Her head only jerked up when she heard the door opening from beside her. The twins emerged, closing the door behind them, and she jumped up.

"Fred, George!"

Fred turned round in surprise, George nearly jumped out of his skin.

"My god Alicia, don't ever do that again. You scared the life out of me." George told her.

Alicia didn't care, she wasn't listening. She waved the map in front of them.

"I did it!" she exclaimed.

"It's a map! Its amazing, a map of Hogwarts. Every room and person I know of is marked on it! See!"

Fred snatched the map, quickly scanning it with his eyes, George looking at it from over his shoulder. There was a moment's silence before Fred let out a long low whistle.

"Wow…I certainly didn't expect this. This is amazing."

George looked like Christmas had come early as he looked back up at Alicia.

"Alicia…this is amazing. How did you find out what it was?"

So she told them as they began to walk slowly back to Gryffindor Tower. She told them of the map talking to her, of her originally thinking she was hallucinating, of the map insulting Filch (Fred snorted with laughter at this point), and finally of the map instructing her on how to use it.

"Wow…" said George once she'd finished speaking.

"We owe you one Alicia, big time. You've done some great work tonight."

He hugged her and she felt like she was going to burst with happiness. They were so pleased, she was glad now that she hadn't given up trying. She positively beamed as she asked the next question.

"So what are you going to do with it?"

The twins glanced at each other for a moment.

"We're not sure yet." Said Fred.

"I don't recognise some of these passages." Said George.

"We should probably start by seeing where they go."

"Some of them lead off the map." Said Alicia, leaning over and pointing at several of them.

"I think they might lead…"

"Out of the castle." Finished Fred, letting out another low whistle.

"We'll definitely have to check those out."

"Look." Said George, pointing at the map.

"One of them starts in the next corridor. Shall we check it out now? With this little baby I don't think we need to worry about curfew. We'll easily be able to avoid Filch and Mrs Norris."

Fred and Alicia nodded eagerly. Together they turned into the corridor and began moving along it until they were standing where the map showed the passage began. They turned to face the wall.

"Must be behind this statue." Said Fred, pointing to a statue of a one-eyed witch next to them.

"There's probably a password or something…I wonder…"

Alicia let out a small squeal.

"Look!" she squeaked, pointing at the map.

Fred and George directed their gaze back to the map once more and watched as a minute – was that meant to be an arm? – line stretched out from the clump of dots that was the three of them and tapped the statue, a little speech bubble appearing next to them reading: "Dissendium."

They stared at the map for a moment before George voiced all their thoughts.

"Do you reckon we should try it?"

"I don't see why not." Replied Alicia.

"What harm will it do? At the very worst it just won't work."

George smiled at her.

"Alright then."

He stretched out his arm; his wand clutched in its grip, and tapped the statue.

"Dissendium."

Slowly, the statue's hump opened. It made the grinding noise of stone on stone as it moved.

"Looks like the map is right on the mark." Said Fred quietly.

Alicia peered down into the dark tunnel behind the statue.

"There's no light in there." She commented needlessly.

"Lumos." Muttered George, the tip of his wand bursting into life immediately, giving out a small radius of light around them.

Both Fred and Alicia pulled out their wands and mimicked him, together their wands revealing a passage leading away from them.

"Ladies first." Said Fred quietly.

"Fred Weasley, if you think I'm going to march headfirst into that tunnel you've got another thing coming. You two are the boys, YOU go first."

"Fine." Grumbled Fred reluctantly, stepping into the tunnel hesitantly.

George followed him cautiously and Alicia brought up the rear. They were only a few steps into the passage when they heard the statue sliding back into place behind them.

"Onwards then." Said George grimly.

"To wherever this may lead…"

* * *

**A/N: **Another chapter down. Next time they're going to get to Honeydukes, and the others are going to go looking for them. Won't say much more, don't want to spoil it.

Read and review people. It's the only way I can improve. Plus your reviews motivate me to write faster. Once again a big thanks to all who've reviewed so far. I appreciate all of your comments.


	5. A Night to Remember

Disclaimer: Mine…MINE! Harry Potter is MINE! Aaaaaand now its time for my medication before I talk my way into a lawsuit with Mrs Rowling.

**A/N: **Firstly, just to let you all know, chapters may or may not slow down by a couple of days after this one. I go back to college tomorrow and thus won't have so much time to write, homework dependant obviously. At the very worst I'm hoping to have chapters come out once every two or three days, whereas at the best I'll keep trying to churn them out every day. We shall see.

Now, a couple of comments to reviewers.

**Eruaphadriel** – I'm delighted that this fic has become a favourite of yours; I must be doing something right. In regards to the map, it took me quite a bit of thought to figure out how I could work with it, I'm glad, and also quite surprised, it turned out as well as it did. As for the twins, their lines really come naturally to me. I don't know why, it just seems so easy to write for them. That's why they've got such a large role in things so far.

**Jagged Epiphany** – Whoa, put the whip away, I'm writing this chapter right now lol. Considering that it was Old Faces that inspired me to start writing again (you'll note my last fic was written over a year ago and never finished) I'm immensely happy to see you review my work, thank you for your kind comments.

**Chapter Five – A Night to Remember**

As Fred, George and Alicia were entering the secret passage to heaven knows where Angelina, Katie and Lee were still sat in the Gryffindor common room. The game of Wizards Chess had been abandoned long ago, and the three of them were conversing in low voices.

"She's been gone for ages now, and so have the twins." Said Katie in a voice that didn't succeed in hiding her worry.

"Curfew was ten minutes ago. They're going to get in trouble if they don't get back soon."

Angelina rolled her eyes.

"When are Fred and George NOT in trouble?" she asked exasperatedly.

"But Alicia hardly ever is." Muttered Lee.

"You think she's with them?" Katie asked.

"How can she be? They left ages before her and she told us she didn't know where they'd gone." Answered Angelina.

"All the same, it does seem the most likely. Who else would she be with? We're all up here."

"She's not with them." Mumbled Lee, Angelina's face shot up to glare at him.

"How the hell do you know? Are you not telling us something Lee Jordan?"

Lee's head remained still, staring straight down at the floor. He could feel both Katie and Angelina's glares boring into him. He'd have to tell them, Fred and George would likely kill him after Angelina had finished ranting at them for being immature, irresponsible boys, but what else could he do?

"They're on detention with McGonagall." He muttered, Angelina's eyes narrowed.

"This is to do with this morning isn't it?" she asked.

Lee glanced pleadingly at Katie, imploring her to get Angelina to drop it, but she ignored him, continuing to glare. Finally he nodded.

"Transfiguration homework my wand." Angelina grunted, thinking back to what the twins had told her McGonagall had wanted earlier in the day.

"Wait until I get my hands on Fred, he promised me no pranks over the holidays."

"Technically it wasn't over the holidays." Added Lee hurriedly.

"They pulled the prank last night. So really he didn't…"

He trailed off after one look at Angelina's face and a warning glance from Katie.

"Leave it Angelina." She told her friend.

"Right now we need to think about Alicia. She's not with the twins, so she must be out alone. What could she be up to?"

They fell into silence, thinking, all three of them watching the unmoving portrait hole with different expressions. Angelina glared at it, as if daring the twins to step through it, Katie watched it nervously, hoping Alicia would get back before the twins did for their sake, and Lee watched it with a defeated expression, boy was he in for it when Fred and George found out he'd blabbed.

Together they watched and waited.

Meanwhile the twins and Alicia were still moving along the stone passage, now climbing a set of stone stairs that they had reached several minutes ago.

"I can't believe I agreed to come with you two." Grumbled Alicia.

"At this rate we'll still be walking come Christmas."

"Would you stop complaining?" asked Fred, irritably.

"We've only been down here fifteen minutes or so. You need to learn to be more…hey!"

He stopped abruptly. George and Alicia, being unprepared for this, almost walked right into him, only narrowly avoiding doing so.

"What is it?" asked Alicia, straining to see past the two boys.

"A trapdoor." Called back Fred.

"In the ceiling."

"Can you hear anyone moving around above it?" asked George quietly.

Fred was silent for a moment, and then he answered.

"No. I can't hear a sound from here. But that doesn't mean there's no one up there, they may just be in another room."

"What do you think?" asked Alicia.

"Should we risk it and go through?"

"Are you kidding?" answered George.

"Of course we're going through." Added Fred.

"We didn't come all this way for nothing. At the very least we should see where we've ended up."

"And if we're caught by someone?" Alicia asked, biting her lip.

Fred shrugged.

"Guess we'll just have to be ready to run back down here if it comes to that." He answered, George nodding behind him.

Alicia opened her mouth to object again, but George interrupted her.

"Look, you don't have to come if you don't want to." He told her kindly.

"If you're that worried about getting caught you can wait down here for us. We won't be long."

"Oh, no." she said quickly, blushing slightly.

"No. I'll come. I was just…"

She trailed off. George grinned, but she couldn't see that as his back was to her.

"If you're sure." He said.

"Go on then Fred, we don't have all night. Open it."

Fred nodded and slipped the map he was holding into his robes carefully, then he reached up to push the trapdoor open. It took him a moment to get it to budge, he assumed it hadn't been opened for quite some time, but then it gave suddenly. As quietly as he could he pushed it to one side and whispered to the others.

"So far, so good."

Katie grumbled as she climbed out of the portrait hole, glaring at Angelina who was in front of her.

"I can't believe we're doing this." She hissed.

"What if we're caught by Filch?"

"Oh be quiet." Retorted Angelina as Lee emerged from the portrait hole behind Katie.

"You know as well as I do you'd never be able to sleep if we went up to bed now. You'd be waiting up to see when Alicia got back anyway. The quicker we find her and get back to the common room the quicker you'll get to bed."

"Yes, but at least sitting upstairs we wouldn't be running the risk of being caught by Filch." She answered in a low voice.

Lee closed the Fat Lady's portrait quietly behind them.

"Katie, the more you argue the more likely it is that Filch is going to hear us." He whispered.

"Oh shut up you." Katie retorted.

"Now, now, temper." Said Lee, smirking as he watched Katie's eyes flare.

"Enough you two. Now is not the time for flirting." Angelina interrupted, suppressing a grin.

"What? We are not flirting!" Katie answered, her voice rising to a dangerous level considering they were meant to be keeping quiet.

"I said enough. At this rate you'll wake the whole castle."

With Katie grumbling to herself and Lee grinning broadly they set off down the corridor away from the Fat Lady, turning right when they reached the end of the corridor.

"Where are we actually going?" Katie whispered to Angelina.

Angelina sensed Katie would most likely not be too happy if she told her that she had absolutely no idea where Alicia might be, and had only suggested they should go and look for her to ease her own worry. Alicia was never half an hour late for anything, let alone curfew. She was, of course, still annoyed at the twins. But as Katie put it, they could wait, for now they needed to concentrate on Alicia.

"Erm…the library." She answered, picking on the first place that came to mind.

"She was holding parchment when she ran through the common room. She might have been heading to the library to do some work."

Katie merely nodded, it was certainly possible. Highly unlikely, since Madam Pince moved round with her eagle eyes just before curfew ejecting everyone from the library, but it was a possibility.

They walked in silence, eyes flitting to every shadow to ensure that it didn't hide the small figure of Mrs Norris. When they reached the library they breathed a sigh of relief. Angelina, who was leading the group, pushed the doors open slowly and hurried inside, the others at her heels.

She closed the doors quietly behind them and turned to face the dark, silent library.

"Come on," she told the others.

"Lets walk down to the back of the library and check there. That's where we all usually sit."

The others nodded and silently followed her as she led them past aisle after aisle of books. They were six rows from the last aisle and the back of the library when they froze. Noises were coming from the back of the library, muffled noises. They were not words, but not the scratching of a quill upon parchment either.

"Alicia?" Lee mouthed at the others.

Katie shrugged; it was impossible to tell from here. She started forwards again, the others following slowly. If it wasn't Alicia they'd just turn around and get out quickly before they were seen. As they approached the rear aisle the noises stopped and once more the group of them froze. Had the person heard them? They remained still, their eyes fixed on the back of the library, hoping beyond all hope the person wouldn't come to investigate anything they'd heard.

Then it happened, a head popped around the side of the bookcase. A ghostly face they knew too well. It broke into a delighted grin as it saw them.

"Ickle firsties out of bed?" it crowed happily.

"Peeves, please keep quiet." Whispered Angelina desperately.

"We're looking for a friend. She's obviously not here so we'll leave you alone."

"Oh no." Peeves cackled, floating fully out between the aisles.

"Can't let students run around the castle at night can I? How responsible would that make me look?"

"Like you're responsible anyway!" Lee half laughed.

It was the wrong thing to say. Peeves narrowed his eyes at them, took a deep breath and bellowed.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED! MAN ALL BATTLESTATIONS! STUDENTS OUT OF BED IN THE LIBRARY!"

The three of them jumped out of their skin, fleeing towards the doors as fast as their legs could carry them, Peeves still hovering at the back of the library yelling:

"RULEBREAKERS ABOUT THE CASTLE AT NIGHT! SOUND THE ALARMS! CALL THE HEADMASTER!"

They had almost reached the first aisle of books once more when they heard the great library doors slam open. They threw themselves behind the front aisle, praying that it wasn't…

"PEEVES!" roared a wheezing voice.

…Filch. They heard Peeves cackle and zoom to the front of the library.

"Who's out of bed Peeves?" they heard Filch ask.

"Where did they go?"

"Take a look yourself. I don't answer to you." They heard Peeves cackle as he zoomed out of the library, laughing madly.

They also heard the string of curses that Filch yelled after him. If they hadn't been in such a serious situation they would have found it funny, but as it was each of them was incredibly pale.

After a moment they heard Filch begin to move, his footfalls echoing around the library as he moved. When he spoke his voice was low.

"Come on out. You can't hide."

None of them moved.

"Don't make things worse for yourself." He growled.

"You aren't doing yourself any favours by hiding."

They edged along the shelf as they saw Filch's shadow grow larger where moments ago they had been running. If they could just slip around the side of the bookcase before he came into sight and saw them…

"Where are we?" whispered Alicia as both Fred and George helped her climb out of the hole in the floor which the trapdoor had covered.

Once Alicia was out of the hole and on her feet George looked around, frowning as he did so.

"I don't know." He admitted.

"Looks like some sort of storeroom. We should try and find a way out." Said Fred.

"There's a staircase of some sort over there." Said Alicia, pointing to the side of a pile of large crates.

Both Fred and George glanced at it and nodded, heading towards it quietly. The three of them climbed the wooden staircase, wincing as the steps creaked under their feet. As quietly as they could the eased the door at the top open and stepped through it. Once they were all inside the room beyond and the door had been closed behind them they turned to take a proper look at their surroundings…and their eyes nearly fell out of their heads.

They were behind a large counter, strewn with pieces of parchment, receipts, and other things. But this was of little concern to them. They were stood in a shop, and beyond the counter the walls were covered in as many shelves as it was humanly possible to put up. Well, perhaps a few more than that, Alicia suspected some of them were likely held up by magic.

But what was covering those shelves drew their eyes. Sweets of all kinds lay in jars, boxes, baskets, some even simply lay on the wood of the shelf. They covered every square inch of room free upon the shelves, and strategically placed stands lay scattered upon the shop floor. Alicia glanced over at Fred and George and had to suppress a laugh as she saw them gaping, wide-eyed all around. She thought it must be like a dream come true for them.

"I've heard about this place." Said Fred in awe.

"This must be…"

"Honeydukes." Finished George

"But that means…we're in Hogsmeade."

"Hogsmeade?" gaped Alicia.

"You mean we're actually in the village? No-one below third year has EVER been here in term time!"

"Guess we're the first then." Said George.

"Shall we grab some sweets then? Or are we going to stand here gaping all day?"

Both he and Fred scrambled to get out from behind the counter, heading over to the nearest display and grabbing some of the sweets on display.

"We can't just steal sweets!" scolded Alicia.

"That's…it's wrong!"

"Relax Alicia!" Called Fred from the stand labelled 'Levitating Sherbert Balls'.

"It's not like we're stealing it or anything! We'll leave some money on the counter."

Alicia thought about this for a second. That still didn't make it right did it? Technically they were still stealing, right? But…this was an opportunity she wouldn't get again, not for another two and a half years. Could she really pass it up?

"Hey Alicia, come and grab some of these Pepper Imps!" called George.

"If we're going to take enough so that the others can have some too you'll need to help."

Oh, what the heck. She thought, stepping out from behind the counter and moving towards George. They were going to pay for it weren't they?

Together the three of them moved around the shop for about ten minutes, grabbing selections of the best looking sweets, filling their pockets.

Just as they were debating whether or not to take some of the 'All NEW Cockroach Cluster!' to try and trick the others they froze. Someone was coming down the stairs behind the door to their left. With a sick jolt Alicia realised that the owners must live above the shop.

"Quick!" hissed Fred, shoving her towards the counter.

"Out now!"

"Who's there?" a muffled voice came from behind the door.

The three of them dashed over to the counter at full tilt, dropping the samples of Cockroach Cluster in their hands onto the floor. They heard a thud from the other side of the door. Fred threw open the door behind the counter and ran through, Alicia made to follow. George caught her eye as she ran; he had stopped in front of the counter, fumbling with a small bag in his hands.

"George!" she hissed frantically.

"There's no time to be messing around now, we have to get out!"

George ignored her, tipping the bag upside down. She watched as several gold galleons fell into his hand and he shoved them onto the counter roughly, then he turned back to the door and moved through it, shooing Alicia down the stairs as he quickly closed the door behind them.

From the other side of the door they heard another door open; the owner was in the main shop now. This was going to be close.

Fred was already in the hole, his head poked out frantically mouthing at them to hurry up. Alicia dashed over to him as red ducked down and out of the way. She scrambled down the hole closely followed by George. As he reached up and grabbed the trapdoor, ready to slide it back over the hole they heard the door in the storeroom above them open.

"I know you're down here." Came the same voice as before.

Alicia heard a quiet clunk as George eased the trapdoor back into place, then all that she knew was hands pressing into her back, pushing her onwards down the dark stairs and onwards down the passage...

As Filch came into view at the edge of the bookcase Angelina, Katie and Lee slipped round the shelf. They saw the edge of his mouldy coat for a split second before it vanished as he walked between the aisles. Without stopping to think they darted for the doors Filch had left open, sprinting out of them without a glance backwards into the Library.

Then ran flat out for ten minutes straight, paying no attention to where they were going. They didn't even know if Filch was chasing them, it just seemed like the most sensible thing to do to put as much distance between them and the library at that moment.

It was only when Katie couldn't run anymore that they stopped, the stitch in her side becoming unbearably painful. Both Angelina and lee took her by the arms and helped her into the nearest room, a classroom they had never been in before, where they collapsed into chairs, gasping for breath.

It took them several minutes to regain their breath, simply sitting still in the classroom, listening intently for any sound of footsteps in the corridor.

"I think we got away." Gasped Lee finally.

Both Angelina and Katie nodded.

"That was too close." Said Katie.

"If Filch would have caught us we would have been dead."

"Stupid Peeves." Muttered Angelina.

"If it hadn't have been for him we wouldn't be in this situation. And the worst part is we STILL don't know where Alicia is."

They were silent for a moment, retreating to their own thoughts.

"So, what now then?" asked Lee.

"Where else could Alicia be?"

Angelina groaned.

"I honest have no idea. Where would she go at this time of night? I was so sure she'd be in the library." She lied.

"Maybe…" Katie began, but they were interrupted by a sudden noise in the corridor outside. Once more all three of them froze. Filch must have found them, there was no other way out of the classroom… They were for it now.

Fred, George and Alicia didn't stop running. They ran full tilt down the tunnel without looking back. They couldn't risk stopping, if the owner found that trapdoor they'd be after them, and they had to get to the statue and out of the passage before they had a chance to catch up. They'd be safe then, the owner didn't know the password to the statue, they'd never get through it.

They finally stopped when they reached the statue; they had to, the statue wouldn't just magically spring aside for them. Swiftly, Fred yanked his wand out of his robes and tapped the back of the statue.

"Dissendium." He hissed, and watched as the statue slowly moved aside.

As quickly as he could he climbed out of the passage, helping to pull Alicia up after him and finally pulling George up.

"Thank god." He moaned in a low voice.

"I don't think I could run another step."

Behind them the statue began to slide back into place, making that now familiar grinding noise of stone on stone.

"At least we got away." Added George.

"We're safe here."

Angelina, Katie and Lee remained frozen in their seats as they heard the noise stop and louder noises take its place. It sounded like Filch was right outside the door, if he would only walk on so they could escape…

They listened intently as scuffling noises came from outside the room, it sounded like there was more than one person. Angelina's blood ran cold. Filch must have woken up a teacher, if they were caught now things would be even worse. What if it was Snape…or Professor McGonagall?

She didn't even dare to breathe as the scuffling stopped, and once more the original noise sounded in the corridor. Now muffled voices travelled to them through the door, what were they saying? If she could only hear then maybe she would hear where they were planning to search next. Then it'd be easy to sneak around them and get back to Gryffindor Tower.

She rose from her chair, indicating that the others should remain seated, and crept over to the door, which they had left slightly ajar. She listened intently, trying desperately to make out the muffled conversation. And then she heard it.

"At least we got away. We're safe here."

She knew that voice…it wasn't Filch that was for sure. It was…

She threw the door open wide and saw Alicia, Fred and George stood in the dark, empty corridor. Where on earth had they been, she wondered. Their robes were covered in dust, and they were gasping for breath, much as they had been a few moments earlier.

Alicia spun round as she heard the door being thrown open behind them, seeing Angelina stood in the doorway. What on earth had she been doing, Alicia wondered. Her hair was a mess and there was sweat covering her forehead, like she had been running.

"What are YOU doing here?" Both Angelina and Alicia asked in unison, completely forgetting about the need for silence.

However neither had the time to answer. A sudden loud meowing started at the bottom of the corridor, the twin's heads darting to look at the source in alarm. As Katie and Lee emerged from the classroom to stand beside Angelina, having heard Alicia's voice mingled with Angelina's, George spoke frantically.

"Mrs Norris! We'll have time for explanations later! For now…"

"Run!" finished Fred.

As a group they turned and began sprinting down the corridor in the opposite direction to Mrs Norris. As they reached the end of the corridor they turned left, almost running into a man stood in the exact centre of the corridor. Lee groaned audibly.

"Well, well, well." Filch sneered.

"We are in trouble aren't we?"

* * *

**A/N: **Phew, that was probably the most difficult chapter to write so far. I had to keep going back and altering bits so that I didn't have things happening too soon. That's the worst thing about a chapter with too much going on, you get to one point and think 'Hang on, I had this happen earlier, this won't work' and have to go back and re-write half a page. 

However I will say now that it's done I'm quite pleased with it. Possibly not all of it, but on the whole I think I pulled it off quite well. What do you guys think? Let me know via reviews.

I promise I'll give each and every one of you a cookie if you review. Well…maybe not everyone…ok, maybe not anyone. Maybe I'll just eat the cookies myself. Anyway, my point being that you should review. Yes, review you must.


	6. Repercussions of the Sporting Nature

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, leave me be.

**Chapter Six – Repercussions of the Sporting Nature**

"Never, in all my days! Six Gryffindors out of bed after hours! This is disgraceful, not one of you has the right to roam the school after hours!"

All six of them were stood gloomily in front of the desk in Professor McGonagall's office, being lectured by an angry Professor McGonagall who looked like she had been in bed when Filch had gone to fetch her. Her hair was in curlers, held in place by a tight fitting hairnet, and she was wearing a long black dressing gown. Filch was stood behind them, a satisfied grin plastered across his nasty face.

"Girls, I would not have expected this blatant disregard of rules from you. You have disappointed me. But you three…"

Professor McGonagall's eyes flared at they focused on the twins and Lee. Moving away from Lee for a moment she focused fully on the twins.

"Were you two not listening when I spoke to you this morning? Did your detention earlier teach you nothing? No Mr Weasley, I do not want to hear it."

George had opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by Professor McGonagall's harsh words. He closed his mouth again quickly.

"I do not want to hear excuses, I do not want to hear blame. You will all report here to me at precisely eleven o'clock on Friday, and ten points each will be taken from Gryffindor."

Lee went slightly red. Between them they had lost Gryffindor 90 points in one day, including Fred and George's prank last night. Where would that put Gryffindor in the race for the house cup? Not in poll position that was for sure.

Angelina couldn't help herself; she knew what was supposed to be occurring at that time on Friday, they'd miss the first Quidditch match of the season. She didn't care about the house points but she had been looking forwards to the Quidditch match for weeks. She loved Quidditch; she had played it at amateur level before she came to Hogwarts. She had been so looking forwards to seeing the match. Before she could stop she was blurting the words out, hoping beyond all hope that Professor McGonagall hadn't realised what she would be making them miss.

"But Professor! It's the Quidditch match on Friday, we'll miss it!"

Professor McGonagall turned her piercing cold gaze to Angelina.

"I am perfectly aware that this time co-insides with Quidditch, Miss Johnson. Perhaps missing the match will encourage you all to obey the rules in future."

Angelina's heart sunk as George opened his mouth to speak. She was going to miss it…this was so unfair. It was all the twins and Alicia's fault. Alicia knew how much she'd been looking forwards to this match, how could she make her miss it?

"Professor, will we still have to come to our second detention on Friday as well? At nine o'clock?" asked George, dragging her mind back to their current situation.

He didn't really need to ask; he already knew the answer that was coming.

"Of course Mr Weasley. You are not going to be excused of punishment for one breach of school rules simply because you have breached more rules."

George sighed inwardly. Great, so he and Fred would be spending almost the whole day in Professor McGonagall's company. Some holiday this was turning out to be.

Professor McGonagall glared round at them all for a moment before continuing.

"Mr Filch will now escort you back to Gryffindor Tower and woe betide any of you if I hear of any more night time wanderings. And you two…" she fixed her gaze once more on the twins.

"I do not want to see you in this office again aside from your arriving to serve your remaining detentions. Is that clear?"

"Yes Professor." They mumbled together.

Professor McGonagall looked up at Filch.

"Mr Filch, if you please."

Filch nodded briefly.

"Right you are Professor. Follow me you lot."

Without meeting each others eyes the six of them turned and followed Filch out of the office. They were silent as they walked back to Gryffindor Tower, the silence only punctuated by the sound of their footsteps echoing off the walls, and Filch's nasty comments about 'young rule breakers'. After what seemed like hours they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Inside." Said Filch harshly.

They didn't dare answer back, Katie simply mumbled the password to open the portrait hole, and then one by one they clambered through it.

"Great…just great." Grumbled Angelina as they moved over towards their armchairs once more. The common room was now deserted, everyone else having gone up to bed long ago.

One by one they collapsed into armchairs, each just as gloomy and depressed as the others. Angelina couldn't help herself, a voice inside her head was nagging at her, telling her this was all Alicia's fault. If it hadn't been for her they wouldn't be in this mess, and she would still be looking forwards to going to the Quidditch match on Friday.

"This is all your fault." She snapped at Alicia.

Alicia looked up in surprise, if she had been expecting anything it wasn't this.

"What?" she spluttered.

"How is this my fault?"

"Because…" Angelina snapped.

"If it hadn't been for you we wouldn't have been out after hours. We were looking for you."

"Looking…for me?" Alicia responded, confused.

Katie nodded next to Angelina.

"It's not like you to be out after hours." She said quietly, shooting Alicia a quick smile, which conveyed enough for Alicia to tell that Katie didn't blame her.

"We were worried! You could have at least told us where you were going."

Alicia went slightly red. She couldn't have done anything of the sort without telling them about the map. She glanced up at the twins quickly and to her relief George stepped in.

"Hey, come on calm down. If you must know Alicia was out looking for us. Wasn't she Fred? If you're looking for anyone to blame then blame us."

Angelina looked as if she might do just that, but it was Lee who stepped in this time to try and defuse the situation.

"No one's to blame alright. We chose of our own free will to go and look for you. You know that's the truth Angelina. Each of us can only blame ourselves. Besides, what's the big deal? We're only going to miss the stupid Quidditch match."

Angelina, who had been looking rather guilty as Lee spoke, let a scandalised look creep across her face as he finished.

"Only going to miss the…Lee Jordan, you know better than anyone how much I love Quidditch, and I know for a fact you like it just as much! How can you say that?"

Lee shrugged casually.

"It's not like it's going to be the only game this year." He told her.

"There'll be other games, other chances to watch Gryffindor play."

"But that's not the point! It's the first game while we're at Hogwarts, and all we're going to be able to remember is the interior of McGonagall's office!" stressed Angelina.

"Its not like you've never seen a Quidditch game before Angelina." Said Lee.

"Alicia hasn't." retorted Angelina.

"She told me ages ago that she's looking forward to see…"

She looked over at Alicia who was sitting in silence across from her. She HAD told her how much she was looking forward to seeing the wizarding sport, so why would she deliberately make them miss it? Lee was grinning, he'd tricked her into admitting that it couldn't be Alicia's fault. He knew how much she'd been looking forwards to the match too. She blushed a deep red.

"Sorry Alicia." She muttered.

"Guess I overreacted."

Alicia looked up at Angelina.

"It's alright." She told her.

"Its understandable. I know you've been looking forward to the match."

"Excellent." Lee rose, the grin still on his face.

"Now that that's all sorted I think I'll head up to bed. All this late night adventuring has tired me out."

"I think we'd all better go, or none of us will be up until midday tomorrow." Said Katie.

A slight chuckle went around the group and they all nodded their agreement, rising out of their chairs as Lee had done. Finally they all bid each other goodnight and made their way up the stairs to their dormitories.

Whilst she was climbing Alicia slipped her hands into the front pockets of her robes, as she did so and her hands came into contact with a pile of oddly shapes things she realised she was still carrying multiple pocketfuls of Honeydukes best sweets. It seemed like hours ago now they were planning to share these sweets with the others and have a fun hour or two in the common room. They could wait, she decided. Tomorrow they'd share them out. After all, they had six more lesson free days to go…

The week passed quickly, even quicker than term time seemed to pass. The six friends spent most of their time outdoors, chatting or playing games, until dinnertime when they returned to Gryffindor common room. Each night Fred and George vanished for two hours at nine o'clock to serve their detention with Professor McGonagall, and each night the others waited for them. When they got back they shared out a portion of the sweets Fred, George and Alicia had brought back from Honeydukes and chatted amongst themselves as they ate them.

Describing their separate adventures to each other had mainly taken up the first night, the parchment map being a massive source of interest. Other nights the topics ranged from Quidditch to Defence Against the Dark Arts homework.

Finally Friday came. The six friends looked glum as they trooped out of the Great Hall together, having just finished breakfast. They walked past the masses of people heading out of the front doors towards the Quidditch pitch and up the Entrance Hall stairs. When they arrived at Professor McGonagall's office they knocked and entered, standing in front of Professor McGonagall's desk as she told them what they would be doing.

"You will all be spending the next two and a half hours in the dungeons with me." She told them.

"Your time will be spent scrubbing the cauldrons used during Potions lessons clean. Without magic of course."

The group groaned quietly. Scrubbing cauldrons without magic? That would take them ages! And there wouldn't be a chance of them hearing any of the match from there. They had hoped that their detention would take place in Professor McGonagall's office, as it had a clear view of the Quidditch pitch from the window. Angelina's eyes darted to the window as she thought of this. Professor McGonagall's sharp eyes saw her.

"I'm sorry Miss Johnson." She said quite kindly, it seemed as though she genuinely was sorry.

"But you have broken school rules, you must accept the consequences of that."

Angelina nodded after a moment, pulling her eyes away from the window.

"Follow me please." Professor McGonagall told them.

They did so, following her through the now deserted castle. They didn't even catch sight of a ghost as they walked through the halls, Alicia wondered if they were out at the match too.

When they reached the dungeons the lamps were not lit. It was plain that no one had been here today, not even Snape. With a flick of her wand Professor McGonagall caused bright flames to dance in the empty fireplace and in the lamps scattered around the room. She smiled to them as she sat down at Professor Snape's desk.

"Just because you're being punished doesn't mean you have to suffer in the dark and the cold." She told them.

They grinned back, but the grins melted as they looked around them. Each of the six long tables was covered in cauldrons of all shapes and sizes; a pair of dragon hide gloves and some scrubbing instruments at one end.

"One to a table." Professor McGonagall told them as she took out parchment and a quill from her pocket and laid them on the desk in front of her ready for use.

In silence each of them moved over to a long table and pulled on the dragon hide gloves.

"You may begin when ready." Professor McGonagall told them, turning her attention now to the parchment as she picked up her quill and began to write. Each of the six friends picked up their scrubbing instruments and began to work.

The time trailed by slowly as they worked, each one of them scrubbing away at the cauldrons as hard as they could before moving on to the next one. It seemed like days had passed when Professor McGonagall raised her head, observed them for a moment, and then said.

"Stop working. You may all leave now, I hope each of you has learned your lesson."

With a quick reassurance to Professor McGonagall that they had indeed learned their lesson all six of them tugged off their dragon hide gloves and dropped both them and their scrubbing instruments into the cauldron they had been working on. Then, as a group they left the dungeon, grumbling as they did so.

"My arms feel like they're going to fall off." Moaned Fred.

"Only your arms? My whole body feels like it wants to seize up." Added Lee.

"Its like physical torture." Complained George.

The girls simply rolled their eyes as the boys continued to complain as they headed back upstairs, flexing their aching muscles as they did so.

"At least its over now." Commented Katie to Alicia.

"Yeah, I don't think I could bear the thought of having to go through it again." Agreed Alicia.

"We have too." Said George glumly from in front of them.

"What do you want to bet she'll have us finishing off the rest of them tonight Fred?"

"Its probable." Replied Fred.

"I'm going to be a physical wreck by the time tomorrow morning comes around."

Angelina raised her eyebrows.

"Maybe then next time you'll think before breaking your word." She told him.

Angelina had been taking every possible opportunity to dig at Fred for breaking his promise about committing no more pranks over the holidays. George groaned.

"Do we have to bring this up again Angelina? I'm sorry ok. How many times do I have to tell you?"

"Another dozen should do nicely." Angelina whispered to Katie and Alicia and the three of them burst out laughing. Fred eyed them suspiciously.

"What did you say to them? Are you making fun of me?" he asked Angelina.

"Now would I do such a thing?" asked Angelina in tones of mock hurt, causing the girls to fall back into another round of laughter.

"Getting laughed at by girls, Fred?" asked Lee mischievously.

"And we thought you had pride." Chuckled George.

"Shut up you too." Fred replied, going slightly red.

"And you too." He added to Angelina.

"Make me Fred." She giggled.

Fred mumbled something that sounded very much like 'bloody girls' before marching off down the corridor leaving the rest of them howling with laughter.

After a moment they continued up the corridor, emerging into the large Entrance Hall.

"Hey, do you think the Quidditch has finished yet?" Angelina asked them, her eyes darting to the front door.

"Even if it hasn't there's no point going now." Katie told her.

"We'll have missed all the good stuff."

Angelina agreed, the most exciting part of a Quidditch match was likely at the start, when the players still had most of their energy and could throw everything they had at each other. Two and a half hours in (that was what McGonagall had said wasn't it?) things had usually worked their way down to a slow and steady pace, if the game lasted that long that was.

"Lets head up to Gryffindor Tower." She told them.

"If the match has finished we'll find out when we get there."

The others nodded, climbing the stairs in the Entrance Hall that led to the first floor. They walked slowly through the castle, in no particular hurry. Finally they reached the fat Lady, gave the password, and clambered through the portrait hole. The sight that met their eyes was not a happy one. The common room was full, so that meant the match had finished all right, but not one of the people in the room looked happy. Gryffindor must have lost the game.

Alicia tapped Percy on the shoulder; who was stood near to the portrait hole.

"What score was the match?" she asked him, as he turned round to face her.

"It wasn't good." He told her.

"We got hammered, four hundred and ninety to twenty. I've never seen such a bad result since I started here. The Slytherins are going to be awful to deal with for the next few weeks."

Alicia nodded to him glumly.

"Thanks." She said, and he turned back to the group of friends he was chatting to.

"Guess it isn't only us who've had a bad day." Lee muttered to them quietly.

"Look, there's Fred." Katie said, pointing towards the back of the common room. Fred was sat there alone, staring down at the tabletop.

"I think he's sulking because we made fun of him." Alicia giggled.

Angelina grinned at her.

"Nah, he's only pretending. He can't stay mad at us. Lets go cheer him up."

She winked at the group of them before heading over to Fred, the rest of them in tow.

Fred didn't look up as they all took seats around him. Angelina put her hand on his shoulder.

"Aww, come on Fred. We didn't mean it." She told him. Fred remained silent.

"Yeah, we love you really Fred." Said Katie, grinning at the rest of them.

"Speak for yourself woman." Commented Lee.

"The day I fall in love with Fred is the day I hope you'll all cart me off to St Mungo's Terminally Ill Ward."

They all giggled for a moment, even Fred.

"I wouldn't want you to fall in love with me." He called to Lee, raising his head to look at them, a grin spread across it.

"Such lies." Lee told them in mock horror.

"Everyone wants a piece of Lee Jordan. My love is in demand."

"In your dreams Lee Jordan." Katie retorted, swatting him playfully.

"He's hallucinating." Said George matter-of-factly.

"Lee thinks that whenever there's more than four females in a room with him they all must be madly in love with him."

"They are too." Lee answered with a hint of humour in his tone.

"I just turn on a bit of the old Jordan charm and they're all over me."

At this point none of them could keep their face straight anymore. They all burst out laughing, their laughter contrasting sharply with the dull mood of the common room.

"Tell you what," George began.

"How about I go and grab the rest of the sweets from upstairs and we go outside to eat them. This place is affecting my usual upbeat mood."

"Yeah, we should go outside while its nice." Alicia agreed.

"Looks like it might rain later, and there's only another couple of days of the holiday left. We should make the most of it while we can."

"That's the spirit." George said as the others agreed too.

"I'll go and grab the sweets from upstairs. Hang on. I'll get them then we can walk down together."

They nodded and George set off up the staircase leading to the boys' dormitory, returning several minutes later with the pockets of his robes relatively full.

Together the six friends rose and clambered once more out of the portrait hole, heading back down to the Entrance Hall for some quality time before the holiday's end.

* * *

**A/N: **I am aware that this chapter is shorter than the others, and you should be aware that I'm not particularly happy with it. I needed to round off the half term storyline so I could move on, and what I had planned to happen didn't really fill up as much space as I would have liked it to.

I've decided to bundle this chapter with the next one because I have a distinct feeling this one isn't as good as I'd like it to be, possibly because it's a purely come-down chapter from the excitement I tried to fuse into the last one.

Read and review, as always.


	7. Christmas Begins…

Disclaimer: I have officially run out of witty disclaimers. Just know JK Rowling owns Harry Potter and that's all there is to it.

**A/N:** Ok, to make up for that last chapter which I'm not too pleased with I thought I'd churn out a second one to go with it to make up for it. You lucky, lucky people. Unless of course this one comes out badly too, then its like a double slap in the face. If it turns out that that's the case I'm oh so sorry.

This did of course mean that you didn't get a chapter yesterday. Sorry about that, but I held it back deliberately so that it could go up with this one.

**Chapter Seven – Christmas Begins…**

If the six friends thought that their first half term had passed them by quickly they were incredibly surprised come the end of half term.

Once more they returned to lessons, each slightly more willing to pay attention in classes than they had been before. The days trickled past like running water, lessons early on in the half term becoming a blur in their memories as the term progressed ever onwards, and before they knew what was happening it was the last day of term.

Just one more day until Christmas, that evening the groups of friends would split up for the holiday period. Both Alicia and Lee were returning home on the Hogwarts Express to visit their family, the other four friends were remaining at the castle for the Christmas season. However even the thought of them splitting up couldn't deflate their high spirits.

Alicia had been chattering non-stop about the holidays for about a week. As each and every one of them knew all too well, she was going to spend a nice family Christmas with the muggles. A traditional Christmas, Alicia called it. Fred and George simply called it boring.

Lee on the other hand was to be staying with his grandmother in Wales. He had stayed with her at Christmas for several years now and enjoyed it immensely, or so he told them.

Thus, when the last day came, the two of them emerged from their rooms grinning widely. Alicia had spent the last several nights packing, Lee on the other hand had not had to bother, he had left his belongings stowed scruffily in his trunk at the beginning of the year, as he had advised the girls to do early in the year. Their trunks were set to be taken down to the Entrance Hall for them during the day, so they simply left them in their dormitories as they left to complete their final timetabled day until the New Year.

As usual they all met in the common room before heading down to breakfast in the Great Hall, and once everyone had arrived they set off together.

By now the castle had been lavishly decorated for the festive season by the Hogwarts staff. Professor Flitwick had been seen on several occasions moving around the corridors conjuring decorations to brighten up the castle. As they entered the Great Hall and made their way to the Gryffindor table they had to walk past two gigantic Christmas trees that, rumour had it, Hagrid had single-handedly dragged into the castle.

For the first few days after the decorations had been put up each one of them had been in awe of the sheer scale of them. Not even the twins, who had heard tales of the lavish decorations from their brothers, were prepared for the scale of the decorations. But after several days had passed the awe began to fade, and each of them grew accustomed to the decorations simply being part of the castle.

They breakfasted together, their conversation focusing once more upon the holidays, many exaggerated groans being uttered when Alicia brought up the topic of her 'traditional Christmas' once again.

"I for one will be glad when you finally go on this traditional Christmas." George told her as they rose from the table to head to their first class, Transfiguration.

"It'll mean that we won't have to hear about it again for weeks."

The entire group chuckled aside from Alicia, who punched George hard in the arm.

"Oh and I'm sure we'd all much prefer to hear about your childhood Christmases again George." She scolded.

They left the Great Hall, playfully arguing with each other as they went.

The day passed far too quickly for their liking. Oddly, for the last day of term, they were actually hoping that it would take its time. It was the last time they would all be together for several weeks, they wanted it to last. But time has a habit of going against people's wishes. The day flashed by as fast as ever. Transfiguration, Herbology, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms, all flashed by in what seemed like an hour.

They walked out of Charms and took the path down to the Entrance Hall. Alicia and Lee were about to leave; the carriages were waiting outside to take them down to Hogsmeade Station. The others were heading into dinner in the Great Hall, so they walked down as a group.

When they reached the Entrance Hall however they had no choice but to go their separate ways. After Alicia and Lee had found their trunks amidst the large pile of them ready to be taken to the station Angelina and Katie hugged both Alicia and Lee in turn, telling them:

"Enjoy yourself. We'll see you after the holidays."

Fred and George on the other hand, were content with a brisk shake of the hand with a very comical:

"Hope to see you again soon."

"Take care now."

"I'll owl you all your presents." Alicia told them.

"I was planning to leave them, but I don't think Katie would be able to make herself leave it unopened until Christmas day."

Katie pouted.

"Remind me to never mention my impatience to you again."

Alicia giggled.

"I'll see you in a few weeks." she promised.

Then they separated. Alicia and Lee grabbed their trunks from beside them and heaved them down the front steps of the castle, hoisting both the trunks and themselves into one of the many waiting carriages. The moment they were seated it began to move, taking them away from the castle and towards the Hogwarts Express.

When the carriage got to the station it slowed to a halt just besides the platform. The two of them jumped down and dragged their cases out of the carriage behind them, looking around for baggage trolleys. Lee spotted a set of trolleys to the left of their carriage and moved over to grab two whilst Alicia watched the trunks. When he arrived back pushing the two trolleys, the two of them dumped their trunks on top and proceeded to wheel them down the platform.

The Hogwarts Express was sat there waiting for them, just as they remembered it from September. Pushing their trolleys through the throng of students they kept walking until they reached the compartment next to the driver's cabin. It was less busy here and they could see two vacant compartments through the windows. Taking their luggage off the trolleys, together they pulled them one by one onto the train and into one of the empty compartments. When they were done they collapsed into their seats.

"Fancy a few games of Exploding Snap while we wait for the train to leave?" asked Lee.

"Sure." Replied Alicia.

Twenty minutes later, when the train was pulling out of the station, the two friends were sat in that compartment, whooping and groaning as they played a game of Exploding Snap.

Back at the castle four friends trooped out of the Great Hall, their stomach's full of delicious dinner.

"Right then…" said Fred.

"Back to Gryffindor Tower I guess. What shall we do tonight girls, to mark the beginning of the holiday?"

"Exploding Snap, Wizards Chess, Gobstones?" asked George.

"We are NOT playing Gobstones again, not after the last time." Angelina announced.

"What? You're a sore loser?" Fred asked her, grinning.

"I'm a sore loser when losing entails having that disgusting liquid stuff squirted all over me!" She retorted.

"And if I'd lost last time? Would you be standing up for me saying there's no possible way you could let me go through that again?" Fred asked, a little mockingly.

"In your dreams Fred. You'd probably smell better with that stuff all over you anyway."

"Who's to say you didn't?"

The four of them laughed.

"Anyway, being serious for a moment, a concept some of us obviously don't understand…" Angelina said, rolling her eyes at Fred when she spoke.

"We are not playing Gobstones. Lets play something harmless."

"I vote for Wizards Chess." Katie put in.

"I still haven't had that rematch with George after our last game."

"Beating you again sounds good to me." Answered George.

Both of the others agreed too, so it was that when they reached the common room Fred, George, and Angelina dropped down into their favourite armchairs whilst Katie ran upstairs to fetch the board and the pieces. When she got back she carefully laid out the board on the table in front of them.

"Who's playing first?" she asked.

"You have your rematch with George." Fred told her.

"We'll watch for now, I don't much feel like playing yet anyway."

"Alright." Replied Katie.

"I'm black, George you're white."

"Hey! Who said you get to choose?"

Angelina was silent whilst Katie and George argued over who got to play as the black pieces. She was deep in thought. Finally, whilst George sulkily ordered his white pawn to move forwards, she turned to Fred.

"Hey Fred, do you remember last holiday when you, George and Alicia used that map of yours to get into Hogsmeade?"

"The Marauder's Map." Fred corrected her.

"And yeah I remember. What about it?"

"Well I've been thinking," she said, moving so that she fully faced Fred's armchair.

"Could we use that map to get into Hogsmeade again?"

Fred shrugged.

"Dunno. We haven't tried to use it since the last time." He said honestly.

"Its sitting upstairs in my trunk. We could try I suppose, there are other secret passages we didn't try last time. And we could always use the one to Honeydukes again, if the owner didn't find it last time that is. Why?"

"Well I've heard a lot about Hogsmeade." She told him.

"There's meant to be quite a bit there. I was wondering if we could do some of our Christmas shopping there. It'd save us having to order everything from catalogues."

George grinned at her.

"Sure it isn't more to do with you being jealous that we've seen Hogsmeade and you haven't?" he asked casually.

"Of course not." She answered, her cheeks turning slightly red.

"Besides, its not as if you saw the whole of Hogsmeade. You just saw Honeydukes, and it was pitch black aside from your wand light. You can't have had a proper look around."

Fred shrugged again.

"I don't see any reason why we couldn't go." He said.

"If the others agree of course. They might not want to."

Angelina beamed at him.

"Thanks Fred, I know they'll agree. Katie's been dying to see Honeydukes since you brought that load of sweets back last holidays."

Fred nodded.

"We'll discuss it further later. For now…" he pointed back at the chess board.

"We have to watch Katie lose again."

Lee clipped his trunk closed; the components for the several games he and Alicia had played after they grew tired of Exploding Snap were now locked back away. The train jolted lightly.

"We're here." Alicia called to him from by the window.

"Great." Replied Lee, straightening up and grasping hold of one end of his trunk.

"If only underage wizards were permitted to perform hover charms on their luggage." He commented.

Alicia giggled as she rose from her seat and moved over to her trunk.

"It wouldn't really help. Even if they were you'd still be breaking the Statute of Secrecy by hovering it through Kings Cross Station." She told him

"Typical." He replied.

"Here, I'll take you're trunk to the exit. You go and find us some trolleys to dump them off the train onto."

"Ok." Alicia replied, pulling open the compartment door and moving out.

It was fortunate that they'd chosen to use the front carriage, it was almost deserted. Most of the people who had filled it in September were probably staying at Hogwarts. Whether they were or not didn't really matter though. The fact was that everyone had gotten out of their carriage already, so the exits were clear. Therefore they wouldn't be holding up a long line of kids trying to get off the train by leaving their trunks at the exit whilst waiting for trolleys.

She jumped off the train onto the platform, spotting a cluster of free trolleys easily. Whilst Lee heaved both of their trunks out of their compartment and to the train exit she ran over to them, grabbing the nearest two, and pushing them in front of her as she made her way back to the train.

When she got back she helped Lee as he carefully shifted her trunk so that it fell onto one of the trolleys, then she pushed it to one side and turned back to help him with his. Once Lee's trunk was on his trolley they set off together towards the barrier leading back to the muggle train station, pushing their trolleys slowly in front of them. They were almost to the barrier when a voice rang out.

"Lee!"

Both Alicia and Lee turned to see a young boy who looked no older than seven to Alicia, running towards them, a broad grin on his face.

"Heya Jake!" Lee called to him, and a moment later the boy had reached them.

Lee embraced him in a quick hug before pulling away.

"How was it Lee?" the boy asked.

"Did you meet the ghosts? Did you learn anything interesting?"

Lee chuckled and turned to Alicia.

"Alicia this is my kid brother Jake. Jake, this is Alicia. She's my friend from school."

"Can you do magic?" Jake asked her eagerly and she chuckled at the excited expression upon the boy's face.

"Not here I can't." she told him.

"I'd get in trouble with the Ministry. We're not allowed to do magic away from Hogwarts."

Jake's face fell.

"Oh." He said.

"I wanted to see Lee do some magic this Christmas."

Lee cuffed him round the head affectionately.

"Hey, its ok." He told him.

"You can still take a look at all my homework. And if I tell mum what we've learned she can show you the spell."

The kid brightened up again at this.

"You mean I get to read Hogwarts work? Wow, thanks Lee! You're so cool."

At that moment a tall, thin woman arrived behind the boy. She embraced Lee, who looked slightly embarrassed at this.

"Get off mum." He moaned.

"Lee! Its so good to see you!" his mother exclaimed.

"Look how you've grown! Oh your father is dying to see you."

Alicia chuckled and decided to leave them be.

"Hey Lee, I'd better go find my dad on the other side of the barrier." She told him.

"He'll be getting worried."

Lee, glad of the distraction from his mother, turned to face her.

"Alright Alicia." He said.

"Have a great Christmas ok? Meet me back in the same compartment on the way back to Hogwarts, we can exchange stories then."

She smiled at him before uttering one final goodbye to Lee and his family, turning, and pushing her trolley onwards.

It only took her a moment to reach the barrier to King's Cross. Trying to act as casually as possible she walked through it and out into the muggle train station. She pushed her trolley to the right fairly quickly to ensure that no-one else coming through the barrier would come running into her, then she looked around. There was her mum and dad, stood next to the Virgin Express on Platform Nine. They waved as she looked and she waved back, pushing the trolley towards them.

The moment she reached them her mother pulled her into a tight hug. She thought back to Lee's mum hugging him a few moments ago and chuckled silently to herself at the similarity of all mothers.

When her mother pulled away she turned to her father and hugged him next.

"It's great to see you both." She told them, smiling up at them.

"Likewise." Said her father.

"Had a good term love?" her mother asked as they began to move through the station, towards the exit to the car park.

"Yeah, it's been brilliant!" Alicia told them excitedly.

"I can't wait to tell you all about it."

And together the Spinnet family left Kings Cross Station; ready to start on their traditional family Christmas.

A mirror creaked open, the noise it made suggesting that it had not been used in many years. A hand grabbed the edge of it and pulled it fully open, George's head poked into view, his eyes squinting into the dark passage concealed behind it.

"Lumos." He muttered, and then raised his hand holding his wand high in the air so that the light it gave off illuminated the inside of the tunnel.

"Looks safe enough." He commented.

"Similar to the other tunnel."

Fred's head appeared next to him, his arm also holding up a lit wand.

"You're right. All looks ok." He said before turning to the two girls stood eagerly behind them.

"Ready ladies?" he asked.

"Of course we're ready." Replied Katie, rolling her eyes as she did so.

"We aren't standing here watching you for the good of our health you know."

Fred grinned at her.

"Good. Follow us."

One by one they entered the passage hidden behind the mirror, Angelina, being the last one in, closed the mirror again behind them. The girls lit their wands quickly and then the four of them set off down the passage.

For twenty minutes they walked along the straight path before reaching a set of steps.

"Steps." Commented Fred.

"Just like in the other tunnel."

"However hopefully these won't lead to a busy shop." George replied.

They climbed the stone steps slowly. Fred and George noted they were much steeper than the set in the other tunnel, however it was not long before the steps came to an end, leading up to a large stone platform.

"There's a ladder here." George called from the front of the group.

"Looks like the only way up. I'll go first and check the coast is clear."

The others agreed and thus George put out his wand before slipping it into his robe pocket and started up the ladder, moving slowly upwards rung by rung. It was not a particularly tall ladder and it took him less than three minutes to reach the top. When he did so his hand fell upon a large metal wheel in the ceiling. With one hand he turned it, the wheel turning as if it had been well oiled earlier that day, George supposed it must have a charm placed on it to prevent it from rusting over.

He turned and turned the wheel; finally stopping when the metal hatch it was attached to gave a loud click. He pushed upwards with his hand, pushing the hatch open, and shoved it to one side. Then he grabbed hold of the ladder with his second hand once more and climbed up several more steps.

His head poked out of a hole in the ground of a deserted back alley. George took a moment to glance around at his surroundings, seeing that it was a manhole that he was stood in which was located just behind a large shop. He ducked his head back down into the passage and called to the others.

"Come on up. Its safe!"

He heard movement and footfalls from below, taking that to mean that the others were starting up the ladder, then he used all his strength to pull himself up, out of the manhole and onto solid ground once more.

He waited at the top of the hole; helping to pull the others up to ground level as one by one their heads emerged from the hole. When they were finally all out he dragged the manhole cover back into place, hearing it click as it fell back over the hole. One quick tug was enough to ensure that the manhole hadn't locked itself back into place, and then the four of them set out.

They rounded the large shop that they had emerged behind and found themselves at the edge of a small village square. Many shops surrounded the square with houses visible in the distance; Christmas decorations were draped over the many streetlamps in the square and glowing, magical tinsel was draped between the many shops. Their eyes travelled to each shop in turn, taking in both the unique decorations on display and what the shops sold. Naturally Fred and George's eyes locked on Zonko's Joke Shop next to them, that was the shop they had emerged behind, but the girls looked around at each shop in turn in glee.

"Well then, Christmas presents. Where were you ladies thinking of heading?" he asked after a moment.

"I want to go to Honeydukes." Katie told them.

"I know Alicia loved those sweets we had last holidays, I thought I'd get her a mixed package with a little something of everything."

"I need to visit several places." Angelina told them, her eyes still glancing around at the many shops in the square.

"But we can't all go together, we'd spoil any surprises if someone was buying us something. We should all split up and meet back here later. Is everyone alright with that?"

Fred glanced at his watch.

"Looks like it's taken us about forty minutes to get here." He commented.

"If we meet up and leave in about an hour then we should have about half an hour to spare before dinner when we get back."

"Perfect." Said Katie, smiling around at them all.

"That's settled then." Said George.

"Meet back here in an hour. Don't be late."

They each nodded and with a quick 'See you later' they parted ways, each heading towards a different shop.

When they met up again an hour later each of them was laden with several carrier bags filled with presents. As they made their way back to the secret passage and moved along it they chatted about the fascinating things they had seen in Hogsmeade.

"Did you try the butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks? It was delicious! I picked some up for us all to try on Christmas Day, one for each of us and one for both Alicia and Lee when they get back. Its not a Christmas present mind you, just a treat."

"And they had Sugar Quills that were this long! I could have sworn they were real, I wonder if McGonagall would notice if I used one in Transfiguration…"

"The Super-Strength Dungbombs looked so cool! Imagine how we could torment Filch is we had some? He'd never know what hit him."

"…Oh and the Filibuster Fireworks…They had a whole wall full I tell you!"

They chatted about Hogsmeade all the way back to Gryffindor Tower where they deposited their shopping bags in their dormitories along with the Marauder's Map before heading down to dinner.

"That was a great idea of yours Angelina." Fred told her as they walked down into the Entrance Hall.

"Can't remember when I've enjoyed myself more."

Angelina just grinned as the group strode through the Entrance Hall and into the Great Hall where the feast awaited. She was glad she had thought of it now, she'd got some super presents for the others. She couldn't wait until they saw them. How she wished she could see Alicia and Lee's faces when they saw their presents, she hated them being split up.

The four of them dropped down into their usual seats at the Gryffindor table, each picking up a goblet of Pumpkin Juice as they did so.

"Merry Christmas." Fred said to them all as he raised his goblet to his lips.

"Merry Christmas!" they echoed, imitating him, each of them drinking deeply.

"And here's to a great Christmas for Alicia and Lee." George said.

Once more they all drank, Angelina looking at George curiously as she did so. Was she mistaken or was he missing Alicia and Lee more than he let on? She knew he was close to both of them, they were all a very close group of friends, but she hadn't imagined that he missed them so much. There was something about his eyes that showed a distinct look of loss…now it was gone. Had she imagined it?

However the thought was pushed from her mind as the food materialised in front of her upon the empty plates, and all four of them grabbed what they wanted and tucked in.

* * *

**A/N: **Done for now, next chapter I'm hoping to focus on both Christmas Day and the second Gryffindor Quidditch game, nothing cast in iron though. We shall see.

Thanks to all those who continue reviewing, to those who haven't yet, please do so. I look forward to reading your thoughts.


	8. With the New Term Comes Quidditch

Disclaimer: I have officially run out of witty disclaimers. Just know JK Rowling owns Harry Potter and that's all there is to it.

**Jagged Epiphany** – You found out my secret! George is falling in love with Lee…not! I think Lee might actually run a mile if he ever found out George was in love with him. In an attempt to help jab you along I'll join in your chant however. Update Old Faces! Update Old Faces! Update Old Faces! I want to read what comes next! Lol

**Chapter Eight – With the New Term Comes Quidditch**

The door flew open and banged particularly loudly as it hit the wall. Angelina and Katie were jolted awake, the sudden noise startling them out of their slumbers.

"Wassat?" mumbled Katie.

Angelina reached her hands up and rubbed her eyes, doing her best to clear them.

"Wakey, wakey!" called a voice from the door.

The girls groaned sleepily.

"Fred, get out. We're trying to sleep." Moaned Angelina.

She opened her eyes and blinked, the sudden light startling her for a moment. By the time she had finally gotten the room into focus all three of the boys were inside. George was squatting on Alicia's empty bed whilst Fred was stood at the base of hers, leaning over towards her.

"But its Christmas Day!" exclaimed Fred cheerfully.

"Christmas…" Angelina said, puzzled.

Her brain was still half asleep; she hadn't a clue what he was talking about. But she shifted her gaze away from George towards the bottom of her bed, where Fred was stood, and it was as though someone had applied a jolt to jumpstart her mind.

"Oooo, presents!" she exclaimed happily.

"Hey Katie!"

Katie grunted incoherently in response. She had rolled over onto her stomach and had her head buried in her pillows. Angelina reached behind her and grabbed hold of her own pillow, tossing it at Katie.

"Oy! You've got presents."

Katie pulled herself up into a sitting position, her hands seeking out her eyes much like Angelina's had done moments before. She was grumbling quietly to herself about how the presents would still be there in half an hour's time and she didn't see why they had to be up so early.

"If we're going to have you waking us up this early every Christmas…" she mumbled to Fred as she lowered her hands.

"…Then next year I'm going home for Christmas."

"Alicia!" a woman's voice called faintly up the stairs.

"Alicia! Time to get up!"

Alicia grunted lowly and turned over. She made no other indication that she had heard the voice.

"Alicia!" it called again more insistently.

Alicia continued to ignore it, hoping it would go away. However a resounding clumping of feet climbing up the stairs told her it wasn't likely to. Regardless she remained still, her head buried in her soft pillows as her bedroom door creaked open.

She heard her mother's footsteps as they crossed the room towards her, felt her hand as it descended upon her shoulder, and shook as her mother attempted to lightly shake her awake.

"Alicia, it's ten thirty on Christmas day!" her mother told her.

"You can't stay in bed all day love. Come on, get up and let's go down to open your presents."

Alicia sighed. Why was it that just because it was Christmas Day she had to get up early? It was the holidays! She wanted a lie in, but she had learnt from experience that her mother didn't take no for an answer to these things.

Slowly she pushed herself into a sitting position, blinking to both clear up her eyes and get them used to the light in the room.

"Coming." She sighed.

"Good." Said her mother.

"I'll go down now. Your dad's waiting downstairs for you, hurry up won't you?"

Alicia nodded in response, dragging herself out of her warm, comfortable bed as her mother closed her bedroom door once more as she left. She picked up her slippers from the floor and pulled them onto her feet before standing. Unfortunately blinking hadn't done quite as good a job at clearing her eyes as she had hoped, and thus had to resort to raising her hands and rubbing at her eyes. That was better.

She moved over to the door, opened it, and stepped out, leaving it open behind her. She walked slowly down the stairs to where her mum and dad were waiting in the living room with the presents. Her mind drifted back to her warm bed once more as she began to appreciate how cold the hall was. She moved through it as quickly as possible and into the warm living room. She put on the best early morning smile she could for her parents and said:

"Happy Christmas mum, dad."

"Hey Lee, LEE! Santa's been!"

Lee shot upright as his little brother's voice awoke him from his slumbers.

"Coming!" he yelled back.

Ah, Christmas, his favourite time of the year, aside from Easter of course. Lee ripped his bedcovers off him and grabbed hold of his pyjama top, using it to rub hastily at his eyes to clear them. That done, he scrambled to the edge of the bed and climbed out of it, running to the door of his room and yanking it open. His little brother was stood outside, almost hopping with excitement.

"Lee!" he exclaimed the moment Lee opened his bedroom door.

"Santa's been, and he left this huge pile of presents! I think there's some for you there, but I couldn't see. Mum and dad won't let me get to them until you come down!"

Lee chuckled slightly.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming." He told Jake, grinning at the hyper active youngster.

"Race you downstairs?"

Jake didn't answer, he simply giggled, turned and ran. Lee yanked his bedroom door shut and tore after him.

"Cheat!" he called after Jake, hearing only louder giggles in return.

Lee bounded down the stairs, hot in pursuit of Jake, and jumped down the last few steps to ground level. He turned and ran into the room to the left, the Jordan's large sitting room, which was decked with magical decorations of all shapes and sizes.

Lee came to a halt in the middle of the room, grabbing hold of the sofa to the left of him to steady himself. He breathed heavily as he spoke.

"Merry…merry Christmas."

"That's one's mine!" Fred told Angelina as she reached out and grabbed the present closest to her from the bottom of her bed.

She narrowed her eyes at Fred as her hands began to slowly remove the wrapping paper.

"I swear Fred if this is a bag of dungbombs or something just as stupid you'll be getting a punch in the arm and no birthday present."

He didn't answer, just grinned. Angelina directed her narrowed eyes back down to the present as she tore off the last piece of wrapping paper to find…

"The new Montrose Magpies cap! Oh I've been wanting one of these for weeks but they've been sold out!" she cried.

She leapt up off the bed and hugged Fred.

"Thanks Fred. It must have been really difficult to get this!"

Fred was blushing profusely as Angelina pulled away from him.

"Was nothing…" he mumbled as she jammed the hat on her head and jumped back onto her bed, smiling broadly.

Meanwhile Katie had been looking through her pile of presents carefully, egged on by George.

"Open mine." He told her.

"As long as you stop whining I will." She snapped, still quite irritable at being made to get up so early.

She grabbed a present from beneath two others and pulled it out.

"Is it…?" began George.

"YES! It's yours!" she answered.

Willing George's whining to stop she tore at the wrapping paper, trying to get at the gift underneath. Finally she freed it from the tangle of wrapping paper and looked at it. It was a book, 'An Advanced Study of Charms'

She looked at it for a moment in silence; it was the book she had wanted. It looked deeper into the history and usage of each charm they would learn in class than The Standard Book of Spells did. George's hopeful voice interrupted the silence.

"Do you like it?"

Realising she hadn't uttered a sound Katie tore her eyes away from the book's front cover and looked at George, a smile creeping onto her face.

"It's just what I wanted." She told him.

"Thanks."

"Don't I get a hug then?" he asked hopefully.

Katie grinned.

"Don't push your luck Weasley."

Alicia smiled as she sat on the floor in front of her small pile of presents. Several presents lay on the floor around her, already opened, and wrapping paper was strewn everywhere from where Alicia had torn it off.

She wondered why she was so reluctant to get up half an hour ago. Christmas presents were worth getting up early for. She reached over and grabbed the next present, the label telling her it was from Katie.

"Who's that one from?" her mother asked her.

"Katie, my friend from Hogwarts. Remember? I told you about her." She replied.

Her father smiled at her.

"We remember, it was certainly nice of her to send your present all this way." He said.

Alicia nodded, smiling back, before turning her attention to removing the wrapping paper from the rather large present. As she tore off the last layer of paper she saw that it was a rather large box with the Honeydukes logo stamped across the side.

She removed the lid quickly and beamed when she saw the contents. The box was full to the brim with wizarding sweets of all kinds, Pepper Imps, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Chocolate Frogs, you name it, and it was there.

"How nice of her." Commented her mother in a voice that Alicia was sure covered the 'your teeth will rot if you eat all those' tone she usually used when Alicia ate sweets.

She put the box to one side, grabbing a Chocolate Frog to eat as she did so, and made to reach for the next present, biting into the Frog as she did so. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her dad reach into the box and grab an Every Flavour Bean. She almost choked as she spun around, trying to swallow the chocolate as quickly as possible.

"Don't eat it!" she managed to splutter.

But it was too late, her father had popped the grey sweet into his mouth and bit into it, a moment later it had been spat out onto the floor.

"A pepper flavoured sweet? What are you kids eating at that school?" he yelled as Alicia hastily put the lid back on the box.

"It's a joke." She explained.

"Every Flavour Beans come in every single flavour, that's half the fun."

Her father was narrowing his eyes at the box dangerously as if he was considering throwing them out. It seemed he didn't approve of the possibility of Alicia eating every flavour sweets. Quickly she turned her attention back to the present, tearing off the wrapping paper quickly and hoping it would distract her father before he got any ideas.

"This one's from Aunt Josephine." She announced.

"I'm first!" Jake cried, diving onto the floor beside his small pile of presents.

Lee squatted down next to his own pile, not bothering to argue. It was a Jordan family traditions that they each take it in turns to open one present each, and for the last four years his younger brother had always gone first despite hearty objections from Lee. By now he had grown used to the idea that 'the youngest goes first' and simply accepted it. Besides, he thought, why waste time arguing over who goes first when it could be your turn by then anyway?

He watched as Jake literally tore the wrapping paper from his present as quickly as possible. He hadn't even bothered to check who it was from. Lee picked up a piece of discarded paper and examined the label on it. His mother and father had bought it for Jake. He lifted his head from the label as Jake tore the last bits of paper from the present and gave a yell of delight.

"A hover broom! Excellent!"

Lee looked at the box he held in his hands. It was one of those new kid's brooms, the kind that only hover three or four feet off the ground. He smiled to himself, Jake would love that. At least he wouldn't be pestered anymore to take him for a short fly on his broomstick anyway, and that was always a plus point.

"Your turn Lee." Said his mother, turning her gaze to him.

Lee nodded and turned to his pile of presents, picking up the top one. He checked the label first, seeing that the present was from Angelina. He frowned as he read her comment, _'Don't tell the twins.'_ What could that mean? She'd sent him something they wanted? Mentally he shrugged; he'd find out soon enough what she was talking about. He began to tear at the wrapping paper with the same eagerness that Jake had possessed, stopping only when he had stripped off the last layer of paper.

A medium sized black bag fell into his lap. He picked it up and turned it over to be met with a logo he knew too well.

"A bag of dungbombs." He whispered.

"Now I understand what she meant."

Lee knew as well as any of the others that Angelina had been scolding Fred and George at every opportunity over the last few months when she had seen any hint of a dungbomb. He grinned; he'd have to thank her for this when he got back to Hogwarts.

"Your turn Jake." He announced.

Mud splattered across the bottom of Lee's robes as he leapt down from the carriage he and Alicia were riding in, the ground was knee deep in mud, it having rained throughout the day. He looked upwards at the great castle before him, realising for the first time just how much he had missed it over the holidays. He turned at the sound of a dull thud at the side of him as something hit the mud; Alicia had climbed out of the carriage into the masses of thick mud.

"Ugh…" she grumbled.

"Now I'm going to have to wash my robes tonight. Why did it have to pick today to rain?"

"Oh come on, a little mud never hurt anyone." Lee told her, grinning at her.

"Apart from those who have to clean it off clothes." Alicia finished.

"Lets go in before it seeps into my shoes too."

Together they trooped out of the mass of mud and up the filthy stone steps of the castle. They had left their trunks in the carriage; they were to be taken back up to the dormitories later. With a bit of luck they would avoid being covered in mud that way.

"Girls…" Lee said, more to himself than too Alicia, shaking his head as he did so.

"Always so obsessed with looks."

Alicia rolled her eyes as they trooped into the Entrance Hall and began to head for the doors to the Great Hall, not bothering to reply.

"I'm starving." She said.

"The food on the train was as good as it always is but its no substitute for a Hogwarts dinner."

Lee nodded.

"To be honest I don't think anything could match up to a Hogwarts dinner. They're delicious."

"Boys…" said Alicia, grinning as she did so.

"Always thinking of their stomachs."

As she finished speaking they turned through the large doors into the Great Hall and began to head for the Gryffindor table. It only took them a moment to spot their friends, sat in their usual seats and waving at them frantically, Fred and George so exuberantly that people from other tables were staring at them.

The two of them quickened their pace as they headed for their friends, incredibly happy to see them after the several weeks apart. When they reached the table Alicia was pulled into a fierce hug with Angelina and Katie whilst Lee simply nodded at Fred and George, beaming as he did so, and sat down next to them.

When Angelina and Katie finally released Alicia and the three of them had sat down once more at the great house table they began to talk whilst Alicia and Lee helped themselves to generous amounts of food.

"We missed you over the holidays!" Angelina told Alicia earnestly.

"Yeah." Katie agreed.

"It just wasn't the same without you around bugging us." She winked at Alicia.

Alicia just kept grinning at them.

"I missed you lot too." She told them.

"We missed you too Lee." George told him jokily.

"Yeah, we just couldn't go another day without the smell of your sweaty feet at night." Fred added.

As Lee punched them both on the arm the girls giggled with laughter.

"I missed this more than anything." Admitted Alicia.

"Just hanging around and laughing with my friends."

"We missed hanging around with you too Alicia." George said.

Fred snorted.

"Yeah, it just seemed so pointless without you with us." He smirked.

George frowned and turned to Fred.

"I was being serious. We HAVE missed hanging around with her. Or at least the rest of us have."

"Lighten up!" Fred told him.

"I was joking. Of course I've missed having her around."

"What about me?" Lee asked in mock outrage.

"Hasn't anyone missed having me around?"

A mischievous glint appeared in Fred and George's eyes as they turned to face Lee.

"Hmmm, let me think about that for a moment." Said Fred.

"I think the answer is no." said George.

"Awww." Said Katie from across the table, attempting to hold back her giggles.

"Poor Lee, the twins are being mean to him."

"They have a point though." Commented Angelina.

"Wow, thanks for your support guys. I really feel wanted now!" Lee grumbled, failing to keep the smile off his face.

"You do?" asked Fred.

"That wasn't our intention, it was completely the opposite actually." Finished George.

The whole group of them burst out laughing. It was good to be back together again. So what if lessons started again tomorrow? So what if they'd have more homework than before piled upon them, as they were getting closer to the exams? The important thing was they were together again, and as they sat there laughing they felt the happiest they had in weeks.

It was two weeks into the new term that the second Gryffindor Quidditch match of the year was scheduled. After the horrendous defeat they had suffered against Slytherin last term Gryffindor had to win this game in order to stand any chance of winning the Quidditch Cup. They were playing Hufflepuff, and the mood was tense, the large majority of the Gryffindor table was silent as they ate breakfast, counting down the time until they could head down to the pitch.

The six friends sat in their usual seats at the Gryffindor table; they were one of the few groups of people at the table who were not silent. They had, of course, never seen Gryffindor play in a Hogwarts Quidditch match before, having been on detention during their house's first game of the season. During the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw game Alicia had refused to go down to the pitch and watch, telling the others she wanted to watch her own house play in the first Quidditch match she ever saw, therefore this would be the first game she ever saw.

Fred, George and Lee were chatting amongst themselves, talking about Gryffindor's chances in the match.

"Our chasers could run rings around them from what I hear." Fred told the others.

"But their Seeker's defiantly got the upper hand. He's a lot lighter and got a much better broom than ours."

"Don't count Robinson out yet." Lee told then solemnly.

"He may not have the upper hand when it comes to speed but he's the better player. Thinks a lot more tactically than Summerby."

Across the table Angelina and Katie were once more taking Alicia through the rules of Quidditch. She had asked them to do this so that, hopefully, she wouldn't get too confused during the game.

"And the game only ends when one of the Seeker's catches the Snitch?" she asked carefully, trying to make sure she got all the terminology right.

Angelina nodded.

"That's right. Whoever catches it scores one hundred and fifty points for their team."

"Their teams usually end up winning." Katie added.

"I mean, its hard to keep one hundred and sixty points ahead all the time isn't it? That's what the opposition would have to do if they knew the other team's Seeker was going to get the Snitch."

Alicia nodded.

"I think I get it." She said.

"It'll all become clearer when you see the game. Don't worry." Angelina told her.

"Hey." George called from across the table.

The girls looked up at him and saw that the three boys were all stood up, and several students from other tables were starting to make their way towards the doors.

"You girls coming or are you going to sit there chatting for the day?" he asked, smirking.

The girls stood up and joined the boys on the other side of the table, and together they made their way out of the Great Hall and down the front steps of the castle.

They walked directly towards the Quidditch Pitch, the sun shining down on them.

"Good weather for Quidditch." Fred commented as he gazed up into the sky.

"Don't really think we could have asked for better weather. We'll be able to see everything really clearly."

They chatted about the weather as they strode down to the pitch, entered the great stadium, and picked their seats in the gigantic stands. People filed into the stands around them, and before long an eager student or teacher had taken every seat.

As the Gryffindor team emerged onto the pitch their stand erupted in cheers, the six of them joining in as the cheering nearly drowned out the commentary from the top box.

"And here comes the Gryffindor team! Wood, Maxwell, Smith, Jones, Boot, Thomas aaaaaand Robinson! They haven't had the best of luck this season having been flattened by Slytherin in the first match of the season, but can they pull it back today?"

"The commentator is leaving this year." Katie told them over the noise.

"I heard people talking in the common room last week. Apparently Percy's thinking of applying to replace him."

Fred and George snorted with laughter.

"Percy?" yelled Fred.

"With him commentating Quidditch would be as boring as History of Magic! Why not just hire Binns and be done with it?" added George.

A massive roar from the Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw fans drowned their laughter out as the Hufflepuff team emerged. The six of them joined in with the collective booing from the Gryffindor's as the commentator rattled off the players' names.

They watched as the Captains shook hands, and the players mounted their brooms.

"And THEY'RE OFF!" yelled the commentator as Madame Hooch gave a sharp blast on her whistle.

"Maxwell takes the Quaffle, passes to Jones. Jones rounds Johansson, streaking towards goal! Intercepted by a Bludger, nicely hit there by Everson! Heldern takes the Quaffle, Hufflepuff have possession…"

Alicia watched fascinated as the game unfolded in front of her. The girl's descriptions had been in no way sufficient to convey what an exciting game this was. You had to keep your eyes moving at all times or you'd miss something, the exhilaration that rushed through you as you watched your team's efforts to score.

"SHE SCORES! 10-0 to Gryffindor!"

Alicia joined in with the cheers as the Gryffindor fans leapt to their feet, cheering wildly. Once they had sat back down and continued to watch the game Angelina leant towards her, in front of George who protested loudly about not being able to see, and shouted to Alicia to make herself heard.

"What do you think?" she yelled.

"Brilliant!" Alicia replied, her eyes shining with excitement.

Angelina beamed at her and gave her the thumbs up before removing herself from George's vision and focusing back on the match, watching as events quickly unfolded.

"Expertly hit Bludger there by Boot! Gryffindor take possession. Jones passes to Smith who narrowly avoids Heldern as she goes for the tackle. Dodges a Bludger, passes to Maxwell who shoots and…SCORES! That's 40-0 to Gryffindor!"

"Hufflepuff quickly play the Quaffle, Gryffindor chasers move to intercept but to no avail. It's Johansson…still Johansson…where are the Gryffindor Beaters? Johansson has a clean run on the hoops! She shoots! Wood dives…AND HE SAVES! Stupendous save there from Wood! How he reached that one I'll never know!"

"He's good!" yelled Lee over the roaring Gryffindor supporters.

"Got great potential! Wouldn't be surprised if he got Captain next year!"

"He's only in fifth year!" Katie called back.

"Still better than the rest of the team though." Remarked Fred.

"Look at them, they could be one hundred up by now if they weren't making so many mistakes!"

"They just need…" Angelina began.

But she was cut off by a sudden gasp, echoing around the stadium. They turned back to the game quickly.

"And the Seekers dive! Have they seen the Snitch? They're neck and neck…Summerby starting to edge ahead…Summerby stretched out his arm…HE'S GOT THE SNITCH! ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY POINTS TO HUFFLEPUFF! HUFFLEPUFF WIN!"

A massive roar erupted in three quarters of the stadium as people leapt to their feet, cheering wildly whilst the commentators voice continued to ring out.

"ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY POINTS TO SIXTY! GRYFFINDOR ARE OUT OF THE RUNNING FOR THIS YEAR'S QUIDDITCH CUP!"

A loud groan echoed through the Gryffindor fans as their team slowly began to head down to the ground. They had lost, and for the older students it was yet another year where they saw little glory in the Inter House Quidditch league.

"Told you." Said Fred to George and Lee gloomily.

"Their Seeker's just too good compared to ours. If he doesn't at the very least get a better broom we'll never win next year either."

They continued to watch as their team left the field, but just as the hordes of Hufflepuff fans began to run onto the pitch to congratulate their victorious team Alicia spoke up.

"Lets go back to the castle. There's no reason to stay here anymore. I for one don't feel like watching the Hufflepuff's gloat."

The others agreed, stood up, and joined the queue of Gryffindor's waiting to get out of the stand. No one spoke as they made their way back to Gryffindor Tower; it was like someone had trodden on their good moods.

When they got back to the common room they found it just as subdued as it had been that afternoon several months ago when they returned from the detention, however this time they were just as depressed as the rest of the Gryffindors. That night everyone had an early night, it seemed the whole Tower wanted the day to end, and when they awoke the next morning it seemed they had all reached a silent agreement to not mention that day again, the day when Gryffindor's hopes of winning the Quidditch Cup were crushed.

The remainder of their first year passed relatively quickly and uneventfully, by now they had gotten used to the fact that term time seemed to pass by in a flash. The Marauder's Map was, of course, brought out and used several times by one person or the other (most often by Fred, George, and Lee), but the amount of times it was used dwindled as time passed, as the girls were pressuring the boys into spending more time revising for their upcoming exams.

As it turned out this was a good thing, whilst the twins had spent hours moaning and complaining about the amount of time being spent in the library they had passed every subject, but some only barely. None of them had actually failed anything, and amazingly Alicia had scraped a pass in Potions after weeks of worry over the exam.

So it was that as they stepped off the Hogwarts Express after their first year they were all in high spirits. They would each be returning to Hogwarts next year and would all be together again. Even though none of them had plans to see each other over the summer (except of course Fred and George) they had all agreed to keep in touch via Owl Post (they had agreed to instruct their owls to wait for a response before leaving Alicia's house when delivering a letter there).

So it was that even though they were to be split up for around a month and a half the group were relatively happy. As they walked across the platform towards the exit back to the muggle world one by one they went their separate ways. First Fred and George, then Angelina, then Katie, and finally Lee all said their goodbyes and left to join their families who were waiting for them on the platform.

As Alicia approached the barrier that led back to her family she glanced back at the train. Though her friends and their families were now out of sight she could still see the train itself. She would certainly miss it, and all that it represented. The school, her friends, magic, Filch; she would miss them all…except perhaps Filch, but then again, who WOULD miss Filch?

Finally, she turned her head back again and stepped around the corner and through the barrier, distinctly looking forwards to the time when she would see the train and all that it represented again. She would certainly be glad to see her family again, but they were one thing. Hogwarts was another thing entirely…

* * *

**A/N **– And it's done. First year is over. Tune in next time for the return to the great castle. Cue cheesy ending title music

Don't forget to read and review people. I appreciate it.


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